Far-right
presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro plans to tackle Brazil’s chronic
energy shortages head-on by expanding nuclear power and hydroelectric
energy despite environmental concerns over the impact of new dams on the
Amazon, the retired general devising his infrastructure programme said.
Oswaldo
Ferreira, one of half a dozen retired generals advising the election
front-runner, said a Bolsonaro government would complete Brazil’s
corruption-plagued Angra 3 nuclear power station on the coast between
Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro at whatever the cost.
He also said a
Bolsonaro government would push ahead with the massive Belo Monte hydro
dam on the Xingu river, a tributary of the Amazon, which was criticised
for displacing indigenous communities.
Shelved plans for other dams in the Amazon basin could also be revived.
Ferreira
said private investors would be called on to help build the
infrastructure Brazil needs and that environmental factors would be
fully taken into account.
Belo Monte and other hydro plans for the
Amazon, the world’s largest tropical rainforest, have been slammed by
environmentalists for harming its biodiversity.
Bolsonaro, a
63-year-old former army captain-turned-congressman favoured by financial
markets, fell just short of an outright majority in Sunday’s election.
He will face leftist Fernando Haddad, a former Sao Paulo mayor, in a second-round ballot on October 28.
Popular
with Brazil’s powerful evangelical and farming lobby, Bolsonaro has
pledged to pull Brazil out of the Paris Agreement climate deal due to
disagreements over how the Amazon should be protected.
His top
agriculture adviser said on Tuesday that his government would slash
fines for farmers who break environmental laws in sensitive areas like
the Amazon rainforest.
Ferreira said hundreds of unfinished
infrastructure projects, from railways and roads for exporting grains,
will be studied and completed if viable with the help of investors
through public-private partnerships.
But energy will be a priority.
“If
Brazil is to return to the rates of growth that we all want, there will
be a need for energy that cannot be supplied from other sources,” he
said.
A Datafolha poll on Wednesday showed Bolsonaro strengthening his lead to 58% of voter support, compared with Haddad’s 42%.
Bolsonaro,
who is recovering from a near-fatal stabbing while campaigning last
month, plans to rally the support of elected lawmakers today near his
home in the Barra de Tijuca beach district of Rio de Janeiro.
In an
interview posted on social media, Bolsonaro said his team had an
economic agenda “practically ready” to present upon taking office in
January, if he wins, including a tax reform that would not raise taxes
but rather cut red tape.
Ferreira said Bolsonaro favoured privatising
the transmission and distribution units of Brazil’s largest utility
Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras SA, known as Eletrobras, but retaining
state control of power generation.
He emphasised that a Bolsonaro
administration will focus on “clean” energy from hydro to wind and
solar, and that environmental concerns will be given “full attention.”
Jair Bolsonaro