Venezuela builds railroads; rain and thermo-power help relieve electricity shortage

[Peace Patriot]

Venezuela Advances in Railway Construction, Reduces Electricity Rationing

By TAMARA PEARSON – VENEZUELANALYSIS.COM

Mérida, May 24th 2010 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – The Venezuelan government is advancing in its construction of a mega railway project which hopes to see 13,665 kilometres of train line linking the country’s main cities by 2030. Also, following bountiful rain and investment in thermo-electric power plants, the government has been able to cut back its electricity rationing.

President Hugo Chavez broadcasted his weekly show ‘Alo Presidente’ in Carabobo state yesterday, where workers are in the middle of constructing a 128 kilometre section of the planned national train system.

Chavez said the project is a long term one, and it is hoped that by 2030 the trains will transport 240 million people per year.

The president of the Autonomous Institute of State Railways (IAFE), Franklin Perez, said that by the end of 2011 the 26 kilometre line from Cagua to Mariara should be ready and within one more year he predicted that El Palito, Naguanagua, San Diego, Guacara and San Joaquin, cities and towns in Carabobo state, should also be connected.

The government is also expanding the Caracas subway system, and hopes to have all three stages of the construction of the Los Teques line complete by 2014, with stations Guaicaipuro and Independencia opened by 2012.

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Electricity Rationing Diminished

Since the rainy season began at the start of May after months of severe drought, the levels of the Guri dam, the main source of the country’s electricity which generates 9,870 megawatts, have risen significantly. The government reports that the dam currently has a level of 249 metres, but it said that 270 metres is optimum.

In the last few months the government has also made a number emergency purchases of thermo electric plants, and Chavez reported yesterday that total thermo-electric generation surpassed 5000 megawatts for the first time in Venezuela.

Hence, Chavez announced yesterday that the government will be able to cut back on the electricity rationing that was introduced in some cities to cope with the electricity shortage that was prompted by the drought.

http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/5383

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The measure of a good government is not the magnitude of the problems they face but how--with what energy, ideas and immediacy--it addresses problems.

The Chavez government addressed the power problems caused by severe drought energetically, immediately and with a range of ideas--including convening the workers in the hydroelectric and other energy sectors to brainstorm analysis and suggestions (something we haven't seen the U.S. government do with regard to the catastrophic BP spill--what do BP's oil rig workers have to say about it? Workers are often more knowledgeable, more skilled and more practical than managers and executives). The Chavez government immediately began contract negotiations for thermoelectric plants, at the start of the crisis, and engaged in widespread consultation to address the energy shortage. When bad decisions were made regarding allotment of available energy, ministers were immediately fired and others brought in, and that problem was solved in days, not weeks or months. And Pachamama has now helped out, with the start of the rainy season.

Chavez takes a swipe at the rightwing opposition at the end of this article. He says: “The squalid ones (the opposition) are sad because there won’t be an electricity collapse” (...alluding to the opposition's use of the electricity crisis that began late last year for political ends)."

What a fine phrase to describe corpo-fascists--"the squalid ones"!

And, hey, wouldn't it be grand if the U.S. had spent those trillion war profiteering dollars on railroads in the U.S. instead of slaughtering a million innocent Iraqis to steal their oil?