Last year at this time I paid 85 Brazilian reais in electricity this month, about 215 Norwegian kroner. The bill that came in the mail yesterday is on 138 reais: an increase of nearly 40 percent over the past year. It has rained too little in Brazil, and for a country that produces over 60 percent of its electricity power, this is serious.
Deep in the Amazon, the world's third largest hydropower plant should have been completed these days. It does not. Consumers are still not alone in the bill, and the massive criticism of the Belo Monte power plant in the state of Pará is in itself nothing new. Native American chief Raoni Metukire Kaiapó, film director James Cameron and actors such as Sigourney Weaver and Arnold Schwarzenegger are among the most prominent opponents of the power plant.
Investigation. The fact that large infrastructure projects in Brazil are being delayed is not in favor either. . .
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