The Trinational Information Repository- The Trinational Information Repository was created with support of the State of New Mexico under a contract to The North American Institute (NAMI). The goal of the project is to develop an electronic technology data base for use by New Mexico and other entities to aid in the strengthening of social, cultural and economic ties with Canada, Mexico and the United States. To that end the site is intended to provide information on critical issues to the three countries as well as explore other issues, questions and solutions of interest to North America. It is anticipated that the data and information in the Repository will continue to grow and develop with continuing input from NAMI, NAMI supporters and public interested in North American affairs.
Latest Additions
NAMI is aggregating a collection of podcasts/vodcasts on the subject of Water Security, as part of a larger project gathering Climate Change and Water information for Canada, Mexico and the United States.You can find out more in those sections of the TIR that deal with those subjects:
Upcoming Water Symposium
Media [podcasts, videos]
Our array of podcasts will be complete June 2008.
TRINATIONAL NEWS
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
High-speed rail plans gain traction in Canada, U.S.
Canada.com, January 12, 2010 - “The rail industry is anticipating a busy winter in North America, propelled by billions of dollars in stimulus money for faster passenger trains from the Obama administration and a major government-sponsored report about high-speed trains in Canada’s most heavily populated region. “It is high noon for high-speed rail,” said Paul Langan, the founder of High Speed Rail Canada, a group that promotes faster and more efficient passenger rail service. “It’s decision time. It’s time to make a decision about the future.”
In the U.S., the government has announced at least $13 billion in new funding that is scheduled to be awarded in the coming weeks to regions or rail corridors for upgrading their infrastructure and speeding up their trains in nearly a dozen regions, including routes that link to Windsor, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. While some passenger lobby groups say better rail service can reduce the headaches of airport security and pollution from vehicles and planes, a Canadian industry association says that the anticipated investments would also create opportunities for other sectors such as construction, manufacturing and steel.” Read More.
Monday, January 04, 2010
Canadian Board Approves Western Gas Pipeline
The New York Times, January 1, 2010 - “A long-delayed natural gas pipeline in Western Canada, which has the potential to provide significant amounts of energy to North America, has cleared a crucial hurdle by receiving the endorsement of a Canadian government review panel.
The $15.4 billion Mackenzie Valley project, which involves Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips, would connect natural gas fields in the Arctic with the rest of Canada and potentially with the United States. Some Indian communities and environmental groups have called the 750-mile pipeline a threat to local species and native cultures and have expressed concern about the greenhouse emissions created if the gas is used to heat and upgrade oil sands into usable fuels. Greenhouse emissions from oil sands are substantially higher than from conventional oil and gas production. But the joint review panel, after five years of study, concluded late Wednesday that the project “would deliver valuable and lasting overall benefits and avoid significant adverse environmental impacts.” It continued, “The project itself, as long-term infrastructure, provides a key basis for future economic development.” The National Energy Board and federal cabinet still need to approve the project, but they are expected to follow the recommendations of the review panel. The board is scheduled to hold hearings in April.” Read More.
Water Crisis, Energy Crisis, Vicious Cycle
Huffington Post, January 4, 2010 - “Water Needs Energy Needs Water Reading Steven Solomon’s excellent new book “Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization” I was reminded again of the connection between the water challenge and the field to which I dedicated my life—energy security.It is widely accepted that water shortage can—and most probably will—lead to military conflict, mass migration, food shortages and a host of other security challenges. What is less appreciated is the connection between water and energy and how intertwined are the energy challenge and the water challenge we are facing today globally. Water is essential to the production of energy of all forms. In the aging oil wells of Saudi Arabia more water is pumped in to increase reservoir pressure than the amount of oil that is actually being pumped out. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, 2 to 2.5 gallons of water are used to produce each gallon of gasoline from conventional crude and more than 6 gallons of water are required to produce one gallon of gasoline from oil shale. Alternative fuels are also water intensive. The voice of the U.S. ethanol industry, the Renewable Fuels Association, estimates that 3.45 gallons of water are used per gallon of corn ethanol produced. Electric generation is no less water intensive. Ninety percent of all power plants in the U.S. are thermoelectric, requiring billions of gallons to cool the steam used to drive their turbines. In recent years, plans for new power plants had to be scrapped because water-use permits could not be obtained. In most countries in Latin America including Brazil, Paraguay, Peru and Argentina, hydroelectric power is the main source of electricity. Want to build a concentrated solar thermal power plant or a nuclear power plants which produce clean energy? Better make sure there is ample supply of water nearby. Solar thermal power plants require large amounts of water to create the steam that spins the turbines and for their cooling towers. Sunny places like southern California and Nevada where solar power would otherwise be an ideal source of electricity often suffer from water shortages that make this form of energy a non-starter.” Read More.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Climate Deal Announced, but Falls Short of Expectations
The New York Times, December 18, 2009 - “Leaders here concluded a climate change deal on Friday that the Obama administration called “meaningful” but that falls short of even the modest expectations for the summit meeting here. The agreement addresses many of the issues that leaders came here to settle, but the answers are bound to leave many of the participants unhappy. Even an Obama administration official conceded, “It is not sufficient to combat the threat of climate change, but it’s an important first step. “No country is entirely satisfied with each element,” the administration’s statement said, “but this is a meaningful and historic step forward and a foundation from which to make further progress.” The statement added, “We thank the emerging economies for their voluntary actions and especially appreciate the work and leadership of the Europeans in this effort.” But many of those emerging economies are likely to express displeasure. Europeans said the deal does not require enough of the United States, China and other major emitters and could put European industries at a competitive disadvantage because the European Union is already subject to a carbon emissions constraint program.” Read More.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Did Nafta Actually Help Mexico?
The New York Times, December 10, 2009 - “Who benefited from the North American Free Trade Agreement? Given the ongoing decline in American manufacturing jobs, many people assume the winner in the accord must have been Mexico.Unions and a portion of the Democratic Party have argued that the accord helped push American jobs south of the border to Mexico, where companies can take advantage of low wages and lax regulation. When the issue emerged again last year during the Democratic primary, the benefits to Mexico were never questioned. But a study released Wednesday by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace finds that Mexico has fared poorly under the accord. “After 15 years, it seems clear that Nafta’s promise of broad-based dynamic growth did not come true in Mexico,” write the study’s authors, Eduardo Zepeda of the Carnegie Endowment and Timothy A. Wise and Kevin P. Gallagher of the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts. In one key way, Nafta did deliver as expected: Exports and foreign direct investment tripled from the early 1990s as Mexico became a leading supplier of cars, electronics and a broad variety of industrial parts to the United States. Productivity in Mexican manufacturing rose 80 percent. But annual economic growth averaged only 1.6 percent per capita between 1992 and 2007 — low even by Mexican standards until the 1980s.” Read More.
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
No Slowdown of Global Warming, Agency Says
The New York Times, December 8, 2009 - “The decade of 2000 to 2009 appears to be the warmest one in the modern record, the World Meteorological Organization reported in a new analysis on Tuesday. The announcement is likely to be viewed as a rejoinder to a renewed challenge from skeptics to the scientific evidence for global warming, as international negotiators here seek to devise a global response to climate change. The period from 2000 through 2009 has been “warmer than the 1990s, which were warmer than the 1980s, and so on,” Michel Jarraud, the secretary general of the international weather agency, said at a news conference here. The unauthorized release last month of e-mail messages between climate scientists in Britain and the United States has provided new ammunition to global warming skeptics. Some of the messages seemed to suggest that some data be withheld from the public. Mr. Jarraud said the release of the climate analysis was moved up from year’s end to coincide with the international conference on climate change.” Read More.
Friday, December 04, 2009
Canada still America’s BFF despite rising isolationism
Toronto Star, December 4, 2009 - “We’re in their good books, but 49% say U.S. should `mind its own business internationally,’ study shows. Hard times have hardened attitudes in the United States, according to a trove of new research that suggests a record number of Americans see their country as a waning superpower that should mind its own business and let the world fend for itself. Yet Canada remains overwhelmingly popular in the eyes of Americans, topping the list of all foreign countries with an 84 per cent favourability rating in the U.S. Together with surprising new data that points to rising U.S. support for free trade even in a time of recession, analysts in Washington say Canadians should not be jarred by the developments: If Americans are in a mood to hibernate, they say, Canada has a special place in their den. “Canada is the country Americans hold in the highest esteem. There is not any pent-up American animosity toward Canada,” said James Lindsay, director of studies with the Council on Foreign Relations, which partnered with the Pew Research Center on the study titled, America’s Place In The World.” Read More.
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
US senators urge renegotiation of US trade deals
Reuters, November 30, 2009 - “A group of U.S. senators urged President Barack Obama on Monday to back legislation requiring the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement and a long list of other trade pacts they blame for millions of lost U.S. manufacturing jobs. “We want trade and plenty of it, but we want trade under new rules. The TRADE Act will help Congress and the White House craft a trade policy that makes sense and learns from our many mistakes over the past couple of decades,” Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, told reporters in a conference call. The bill, which has seven co-sponsors in the Senate, shows the strong opposition Obama could face from many members of his own Democratic Party if he pushes for new trade agreements without addressing concerns about past trade pacts. Six Democrats are among the co-sponsors, as well as independent Bernie Sanders.U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a speech on Monday at a World Trade Organization meeting in Geneva that the United States was “ready to move into the endgame” of the eight-year-old world trade talks if other countries made meaningful market-opening commitments. The proposed Trade Reform, Accountability, Development, and Employment Act requires the U.S. Government Accountability Office to evaluate the impact of NAFTA, which groups the United States, Canada and Mexico, and other trade deals on U.S. jobs, wages and business investment and for the White House to give Congress a plan for renegotiating those pacts.” Read More.
