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Stop Alcoa From Destroying Iceland's Wilderness!
The
Icelandic government plans to construct a large hydropower project in
Iceland's Eastern Highlands, one of Europe's largest remaining wilderness
areas, in order to supply power to a US aluminum smelter owned by Alcoa. The
"Kahranjukar Project" involves building miles of roads, boring a
series of tunnels, diverting dozens of rivers to create 3 reservoirs and
erect nine dams, including one that is 630 feet -- Europe's highest. The
level of the immense reservoir will fluctuate seasonally, from 170 to 250
feet.
The
Karahnjukar Project would supply power to a planned Alcoa aluminum smelter.
US-based Alcoa is the world's largest aluminum producer and is moving to
Iceland not to expand production, but to cut costs. It is closing smelters
in the US and moving to Iceland where the government is offering dirt-cheap
electricity.
The
aluminum plant will get a subsidized rate, thought to be about 1.5
cents/kWh. The price will rise and fall with the price of aluminum (which is
currently quite low, due to a glut on the market). The utility has yet to
release the price at which it will sell Alcoa its hydropower.
It's
not just cheap power that draws Alcoa to Iceland: Iceland's reliance on
geothermal power has given it an exemption from the Kyoto Protocol's fossil
fuel emissions, which would allow Alcoa's smelter to operate without having
to pay penalties for any carbon dioxide emissions.
What is at Stake
If
Karahnjukar goes forward, a large wilderness area will be sacrificed so that
the world can consume cheaper aluminum. The massive project will be built on
the north side of Europe's greatest glacier, Vatnajokull, a vast ice field
beneath which lie several active volcanoes. The project will drown 22 square
miles of tundra, presently the grazing grounds for more than 2,000 reindeer
and the nesting ground for the pink-footed goose, and affect the flows of
close to 60 waterfalls. In early summer, silt from the exposed banks will
blow off all over the countryside.
Iceland's
equivalent of America's Grand Canyon, Dimmugljufur, or Dark Canyon, is a
deep cleft carved out by the region's most powerful glacial river, the
Jokulsa a Bru. The part of the canyon between the edge of the glacier and
the dam will be submerged; on the far side of the dam, it will become a dry
gulch, the impounded water diverted through a 25-mile-long tunnel to the
power station that will generate the electricity needed for Alcoa's smelter.
The Karahnjukar Project officials claim that it will
create close to 750 jobs in Eastern Iceland, an economically disadvantaged
region. Yet the economics of the project are questionable. According to an
independent analysis commissioned by Iceland's Nature Conservation Agency,
it will likely produce annual losses of $36 million.
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