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SUSTAINABLE ENERGY NEWS NUMBER 8

4. General Sustainable Energy News

Mexican utility reform crashes against Constitution President Vicente Fox's desire to privatise the generation and distribution of electricity - something he said was vital to Mexico's modernization - has crashed head-on into the Constitution, which declares utilities of vital national interest and makes them the domain of the state. On Tuesday, the opposition refused to support any effort to privatise the power industry, insisting change in the utility system may only be accomplished through legislation consistent with constitutional principles. Fox and his National Action Party (PAN) have argued that the industry needs to be privatised because the government lacks the resources to maintain it properly. The opposition terms Fox's plan "an attack on national interests" and will only go along with fine-tuning to permit private investment in certain complementary activities. Though PAN legislators strongly differ, they have agreed to seek compromise regarding regulatory legislation. "We have not reached agreement on amending the constitution - we differ on that point - but there is an explicit willingness to change other legislation," said Felipe Calderon, the leader of the PAN delegation in the lower house. Senators from the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) urged Fox to send his utility reform bill to Congress "as soon as possible" so that it reaches the floor before the next legislative session, in September. PRI and PRD legislators are willing to accept private investment in specific parts of the industry as long as it does not run afoul of the Constitution. "Reform won't conform to the president's taste," Manuel Bartlett said. "The government should introduce its bill immediately so that we may apply ourselves to the task of changing regulatory legislation," Jesus Ortega said, adding that "the PRI and PRD are prepared to start working on it tomorrow." The Fox administration suffered a setback several months ago when the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional a decree issued last year authorizing private companies to sell their surplus electricity. "Electric energy must retain the status of strategic national resource," the justices' opinion read. Mexico's constitution, which defines the provision of electricity as a "strategic" national industry and thus the exclusive domain of the state, bars private concerns from participating in either the generation or distribution of electric power. Authorities estimate the industry requires an annual investment of some $5 billion to satisfy the demand for electric power, which is expected to grow at a 6 percent annual rate for the next 10 years. The government, the business community and most financial analysts insist on the urgent need to overhaul the industry so as to permit access to private capital, inasmuch as state resources are increasingly inadequate. The world's deadliest cargo Two British freighters carrying enough plutonium to make 50 nuclear bombs are now on route through the Pacific ocean. The ships will pass South Africa then up to the Irish sea before reaching their final destination at a nuclear reprocessing facility in Sellafield. Along their entire route the ships will face opposition by ordinary citizens in small boats and governments terrified at the prospect of an accident or deliberate attack. The deadly freighters, Pacific Pintail and Pacific Teal, will soon face opposition by a citizen's flotilla of small ships in the Tasman Sea. Global fuel cell energy generating capacity will increase to near 16,000 MW by 2012 from 45 MW in 2002. Although there is still only one true commercial stationary fuel cell product in the marketplace, the competition level has increased dramatically in the last year according to the latest study from Allied Business Intelligence (ABI). A key trend in the stationary fuel cell industry has been the shift from research and development to the establishment of manufacturing plants, according to ABI's findings in the new study, "Global Stationary Fuel Cell Markets- A Detailed Analysis of an Emerging Industry." "The heightened level of competition has been forcing companies in the field toward introducing meaningful early commercial products into niche markets," said Atakan Ozbek, ABI's Director of Energy Research and report author. The study findings show early adopter markets such as wastewater treatment plants, telecommunication back up centers and data centers will be the first markets that will see stationary fuel cell products deployed.

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