George W Bush The Peruvian Rainforest and the Gas Pipeline

George W Bush, The Peruvian Rainforest and the Gas Pipeline

George W Bush appears to be helping his friends and supporters by approving financial support for the pipeline in the Peruvian Amazon, as described in the passage below.

Not cynical - just realistic?

It just so happens that Hunt Oil and Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) two main beneficiaries of this project, are massive investors in George W Bush and his administration.

Mr Ray Hunt chairman of Hunt Oil and his wife, have recently donated maximum personal funds to George W Bush for his re-election campaign - and they raised more than $100,00 in 2000 for George W. Bush.

KBR are a subsidiary of Dick Cheney's old company (Dick Cheney the Vice President), and they 'are well placed' to build a $1bn gas plant off the Peruvian coast if all goes to plan.

Environmental campaigners have stated that the project which is already 60% complete, has already caused food shortages and disease.

The above is a contained version of events thus far.

Birds which can be found in the Peruvian rainforest:
Latin/sicentific name and name used by Aviculturists

Red-and-green Macaw (Ara chloroptera) Green-winged Macaw
Blue-and-yellow Macaw (Ara ararauna) Blue-and-gold Macaw
Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao)
Red-bellied Macaw (Orthopsittaca [Ara] manilata)
Chestnut-fronted Macaw (Ara severa) Severe Macaw
Mealy Parrot (Amazona farinosa) Mealy Amazon
Yellow-crowned Parrot (Amazona ochrocephala) Yellow-crowned Amazon
Blue-headed Parrot (Pionus menstruus) Blue-headed Pionus
Orange-cheeked Parrot (Pionopsitta barrabandi) Barraband’s Parrot
Dusky-headed Parakeet (Aratinga weddellii) Dusky Conure
White-eyed Parakeet (Aratinga leucopthalmus) White-eyed Conure
Cobalt-winged Parakeet (Brotogeris cyanoptera)
White-bellied Parrot (Pionites leucogaster) White-bellied Caique
Common Piping Guan (Pipile cumanensis [Aburria pipile])
Pale-vented Pigeon (Columba subvinacea)

Please read the following passage for more details:

Bush, the rainforest and a gas pipeline to enrich his friends

30 July 2003

President George Bush is seeking funds for a controversial project to drive gas pipelines from pristine rainforests in the Peruvian Amazon to the coast.

The plan will enrich some of Mr Bush's closest corporate campaign contributors while risking the destruction of rainforest, threatening its indigenous peoples and endangering rare species on the coast.

Among the beneficiaries would be two Texas energy companies with close ties to the White House, Hunt Oil and Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), a subsidiary of Vice-President Dick Cheney's old company, Haliburton, which is rebuilding Iraq's oil infrastructure.

The pipeline slices through some of the most biologically diverse places on earth.

Their remoteness has preserved an extraordinarily rich ecosystem in the coastal Paracas reserve, which is home to such rare species as Humboldt penguins, sea lions and green sea turtles.

The pipeline will pass within 300 meters of a school and even closer to some homes, risking people’s safety in the event of pipeline ruptures and explosions. Industrial waste, increased river traffic, noise and deforestation are already contaminating water and reducing fish stocks and wildlife.

These are grave threats to people who depend entirely on natural resources for subsistence. Pipeline construction is also bringing a wave of workers, colonists and loggers to the area, challenging the indigenous peoples’ rights to land and game.

During the projected 33-year life of the project, environmental degradation and social and cultural breakdown are inevitable.

Identified as one of the world’s 25 “hotspots” most in need of protection for their remarkable biological diversity, the Camisea region provides habitat for over 800 species of birds. Forty-five species of orchids grow amid the lush tropical vegetation. Globally threatened mammals include the woolly monkey, Emperor tamarin, giant otter, giant anteater, giant armadillo, jaguar and Andean cat.

The Camisea natural gas project - with reserves of 13,000 billion cubic feet of gas - has already scared off two big investors, Citigroup and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. According to an internal report by the US Export Import Bank, obtained by the lobby group Amazon Watch, proposals to mitigate the environmental impact of the project are "woefully inadequate" and will lead to mudslides, destroy habitats and spread diseases among indigenous peoples.

Friends of the Earth describes one threatened area as "one of the world's most pristine tropical rainforests", home to the Nahua, Kirineri, Nanti, Machiguenga and Yine indigenous groups. Past contact between indigenous peoples and loggers has proven disastrous - 42 per cent of the Nahua died from diseases contracted from outsiders in the 1980s.

Already, the project, which is 60 per cent complete, has run into difficulties, including the kidnapping of 60 pipeline workers last week.

They were freed later by the Peruvian military.

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Nevertheless, the Bush administration plans to approve financial support for the project, possibly as early as this week, via both the US Export Import Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The two institutions, which are due to make their own final decisions in the next couple of weeks, are expected to put up about $300m (£185m) in loans and guarantees, which would in turn pave the way for financing the rest of the $1.6bn project.

Ray Hunt, chairman of Hunt Oil, was a so-called "pioneer" who raised more than $100,000 for Mr Bush in 2000. He and his wife recently gave the maximum personal contribution to Mr Bush's re-election campaign.

Kellogg Brown & Root would not be involved in the pipeline but are well placed to build a $1bn natural gas plant on the Peruvian coast if it goes ahead. The ties linking KBR to Mr Cheney have prompted the same charges of favouritism that surrounded the choice of Haliburton to oversee Iraq's oil fields. The president of the Export Import Bank, Philip Merrill, is a close associate of Mr Cheney. And the chief US representative at the IDB, Jose Fourquet, is also a Bush "pioneer" who helped mobilise Hispanic support in 2000.

The Camisea project has raised eyebrows in Washington as well as among campaigners in the Amazon, not least because banks and governments usually consider environmental impacts very carefully before approving such ventures.

The US Agency for International Development is against the project and several senior congressional leaders have urged the US Treasury to delay a final decision until further reviews have taken place.

The Export Impact Bank's report conceded that key decisions were made for economic reasons, that massive erosion had already occurred on the pipeline route and that unique biodiversity faced "significant, long-term and largely irreversible" deterioration.

Three lobby groups - Amazon Watch, Amazon Alliance and Environmental Defence - said last week that the project was causing food shortages and disease in the Urubamba valley.

The Bush administration is reticent about its plans but is keen to exploit new sources of energy to reduce dependence on Middle Eastern oil.

Its ambition to open up the Alaskan reserve proved controversial, and has so far been blocked by the US Congress.

By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles ©

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