Chile on Friday gave the green light for the $4.4 billion coal-fired Castilla thermal power plant planned by Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista, saying it had approved its environmental study. The approval comes amid a drought-induced energy squeeze that threatens power disruptions this year in the world's top copper producer.
The government of President Sebastian Pinera has urged the prompt approval of energy projects to meet the growing demand for power in the country. "It has been approved unanimously," said regional administrator Ximena Matas after the vote by government representatives in an local environmental commission in the northern city of Copiapo. Critics of the project shouted and threw coins at the end of the vote to protest the approval of the project, which they say will contaminate swaths of the Atacama desert and its coast.