Thursday, September 30, 2010

Oil: Can Ecuador see past the black stuff?

A revolutionary plan to leave Ecuador's abundant oil in the ground could show the world just what's possible

John Vidal
The Guardian

A rupture in Ecuador's second largest oil pipeline
 polluted the Santa Rosa river in the
Amazon jungle in early 2009.
 Photograph: Guillermo Granja/Reuters
One of the most extraordinary people I have met in 10 days of travelling around Peru and Ecuador has been Alberto Acosta. He's head of Ecuador's leading research group now, but until 2007 was the second most powerful man in the country after the president, Rafael Correa. He was not only charged with masterminding the new constitution but was head of the assembly, or parliament, a founder of the ruling political party and minister of energy of the country that depends on oil.

But Acosta will go down in history as the world's only serving oil minister to have ever proposed leaving a country's black stuff in the ground. That's like Dracula renouncing blood, or a sports minister saying it's better to play hide and seek than football. It just does not happen.

Read more HERE.

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