Abstract

Societies in South America are increasingly becoming aware of the impact of hydropower plants or fossil-burning thermal generators, this has led to increased opposition by people to the building of new plants. Brazil and Chile are two such countries which are trying to reconcile the need for abundant energy supply with environmental constraints. Environmental regulation in Brazil dates from the early 1980s, when a National Policy for environmental issues was launched and established that construction, installation, and functioning of activities that use environmental resources depend on the approval of licenses from environmental bodies. The electricity companies in Chile are subject to the Law 19300, which requires companies to conduct environmental impact studies of any future projects or activities that may affect the environment and the review of such studies by a state agency, CONAMA. The primary challenge for South American is to ensure sufficient capacity and investment to serve their growing economies and while working in this direction the legitimate interest of the society to have energy should be kept above the interest of local population.