Abstract

The establishment of energy security as a primary national policy goal has troubled the Chilean governments over the last two decades. The dependence on Argentinean natural gas and imported fossils fuels has pushed energy policies towards a heavy reliance on hydroelectric and coal power stations for electricity production. While the Frei administration (1994-2000) discontinued the national coal company (ENACAR) operations claiming the exhaustion of its resources, the approval of several thermoelectric plants over the past decade has brought a re-commodification of coal that deserves a closer inspection. This revival is geographically located in the Chilean Patagonia: only in the first semester of 2011 two mega projects related to electricity generation were approved; Hydroaysen (a 2,750 MW operation which will flood 5,910 hectares of native forest in Aysén region) and the exploitation of coal mines in Isla Riesco (five open pit operations exploiting 73 million tons in 12 years in Magallanes region). These projects have caused social unrest: while the environmental movement rejects both initiatives, the business sector argues that Chile has to choose and coal provides an alternative for those opposing to flood important bio-diverse areas. In this work we revise coal’s importance in the Chilean electricity mix and the way this has been influenced by the policies in force during the last twenty years. In the long term, we aim to build an analytical framework for studying the commodification of carbon not only as an energy carrier but as a motor for unequal development between Chilean regions. Our research question is: what implications for regional development have brought the re-commodification of coal within the national energy matrix?