Rio Olympics at GILF3 in Washington DC!

Rio de Janeiro Olympics 2016 Projects will Be Presented at The 3rd Global Infrastructure Forum on December 9th -11th, 2009 in Washington, DC

GILF3 Update: Jabaguara redevelopment project (Brazil)

Marcelo Cardinale Branco, Sao Paulo's Secretary of Infrastructure and Public Works, will present this US$1.35 billion housing re-development project at the 3rd Annual Global Infrastructure Leadership Forum. The project is based on the Cepac financial structure, a unique financing scheme that has yielded IRRs in the range of 18-25%. The city government has so far implemented two successful projects based on the same structure, including the Aguas Espraiadas project. Civil works include the construction of 2 tunnels and highway connections into the Jabaquara system.

For more Global Infrastructure Forum Updates visit: http://cg-la.com/forumresources

What the Future May Hold

By Bob Herbert | NYTimes.com | November 16, 2009

What will the United States be like in 20 years when today’s toddlers are in college or trying to land that first job or maybe thinking about starting a family?

The answer will depend to a great extent on decisions we make now about the American infrastructure.

This came to mind as I was reading about yet another closure of the problem-plagued San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, which is more than 70 years old. In 20 years, will today’s toddlers be traveling on bridges and roads that are in even worse shape than today’s? Will they endure mammoth traffic jams that start earlier and end later? Will their water supplies be clean and safe? Will the promise of clean energy visionaries be realized, or will we still be fouling the environment with carbon filth to the benefit of traditional energy conglomerates and foreign regimes that in many cases wish us anything but good?



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States' Fiscal Woes May Continue Into 2012

11.13.09 | ENR.com | By Tom Ichniowski

With the economic slump battering tax receipts, state budgets remain in dire shape and the pain may continue into fiscal years 2011 and 2012, according to preliminary findings from the National Governors Association and National Association of State Budget Officers.

The groups on Nov. 12 released preliminary findings from their next biannual Fiscal Survey of the States, due out soon. Scott Pattison, executive director of the budget officers' group, says that for fiscal 2009 and 2010 "We are seeing the worst numbers and indicators that we've ever seen in terms of state fiscal conditions."

Pattison says that states' combined 2009 collections of sales, personal income and corporate income taxes fell 7.4% from the 2008 level. The sharpest decline was in corporate income tax collections, which plunged 16.1%.

NGA and NASBO also said that in fiscal 2009, which for most states ended June 30, 42 states cut their operating budgets by a total of $31.2 billion. That is a much more severe reduction than in the last fiscal crunch, when cuts were $14 billion in 2002 and $12 billion in 2003.

The reductions included layoffs at 19 states in 2009. Pattison added that25 states had layoffs or plan to do so in 2010.

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Rio Pledges 'Power Island' Immune from Blackouts

By BRADLEY BROOKS| AP Online

Norman Anderson, President & CEO of CG/LA Infrastructure, a private Latin American energy and infrastructure expert in Washington, D.C., said Rio also gets energy from two nearby nuclear plants. Angra 1 and Angra 2 have a combined installed capacity of 2,000 megawatts, while another planned nuclear plant will produce 1,400 megawatts by 2014.

But this week's blackouts forced those two plants to shut down for 24 hours as a safety precaution after the massive energy failure hit 18 of Brazil's states.

RIO DE JANEIRO - Organizers of the 2016 Olympics are pitching host city Rio de Janeiro as a potential "power island" immune from blackouts like the one that left 60 million Brazilians in the dark, though experts questioned Thursday whether a safe energy haven for the games is possible.

Rio has the capacity to produce more energy than it can consume with natural gas-fired plants and nuclear energy facilities nearby. And Brazil's Olympic Committee touted that fact in its bid proposal, saying locally generated energy could supply the city alone instead of being fed into the national grid.

The Olympic venues themselves will also be supported with power from new wind and solar power projects.

But since late Tuesday's blackout, which darkened all of Rio and much of Brazil, the committee has refused to comment on the outage or the power island concept.

Instead, committee officials e-mailed to reporters the section of the bid proposal on energy that does not provide detailed information on what's needed to isolate Rio with its own electricity. Brazil's Energy Ministry also declined to comment Thursday.

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