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
Monday, February 01, 2010
Good and Boring
The New York Times, February 1, 2010 - “In times of crisis, good news is no news. Iceland’s meltdown made headlines; the remarkable stability of Canada’s banks, not so much. Yet as the world’s attention shifts from financial rescue to financial reform, the quiet success stories deserve at least as much attention as the spectacular failures. We need to learn from those countries that evidently did it right. And leading that list is our neighbor to the north. Right now, Canada is a very important role model. Yes, I know, Canada is supposed to be dull. The New Republic famously pronounced “Worthwhile Canadian Initiative” (from a Times Op-Ed column in the ’80s) the world’s most boring headline. But I’ve always considered Canada fascinating, precisely because it’s similar to the United States in many but not all ways. The point is that when Canadian and U.S. experience diverge, it’s a very good bet that policy differences, rather than differences in culture or economic structure, are responsible for that divergence. And anyway, when it comes to banking, boring is good. Read More.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Mexico - President Felipe Calderón Meets with Executives from Global Firms
Israia, January 31, 2010 - “Earlier today, during the Annual Meeting 2010 of the World Economic Forum, Mexican President Felipe Calderón met with the leaders of various global firms. During these meetings, President Calderón explained the competitive advantages that make Mexico an attractive destination for productive investment and job creation. He said that after many years, Mexico is once again one of investors’ ten favorite studies, according to a recent study by AT Kearney. He invited businessmen to invest in Mexico and take advantage of its geostrategic position, which links it to the world’s largest market and the economies of Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America, as well as Mexico’s increase in competitiveness, which has yielded lower manufacturing costs than those observed in countries such as Brazil, China and India. President Calderón talked to President and Director General of Siemens AG, Peter Löscher, whom he congratulated on his firm’s decision to transfer the production of switches to Mexico, which represents an initial investment of over million dollars in addition to the creation of a thousand new jobs.” Read More.
Mexico - President Felipe Calderón Meets with Executives from Global Firms
Israia, January 31, 2010 - “Earlier today, during the Annual Meeting 2010 of the World Economic Forum, Mexican President Felipe Calderón met with the leaders of various global firms. During these meetings, President Calderón explained the competitive advantages that make Mexico an attractive destination for productive investment and job creation. He said that after many years, Mexico is once again one of investors’ ten favorite studies, according to a recent study by AT Kearney. He invited businessmen to invest in Mexico and take advantage of its geostrategic position, which links it to the world’s largest market and the economies of Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America, as well as Mexico’s increase in competitiveness, which has yielded lower manufacturing costs than those observed in countries such as Brazil, China and India. President Calderón talked to President and Director General of Siemens AG, Peter Löscher, whom he congratulated on his firm’s decision to transfer the production of switches to Mexico, which represents an initial investment of over million dollars in addition to the creation of a thousand new jobs.” Read More.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Wind Power Grows 39% for the Year
The New York Times, January 26, 2010 - “Despite a crippling recession and tight credit markets, the American wind power industry grew at a blistering pace in 2009, adding 39 percent more capacity. The country is close to the point where 2 percent of its electricity will come from wind turbines. While that is still a small share, it is up from virtually nothing a few years ago. Continued growth at such a fast pace could help the nation lower its emissions of the gases that cause global warming. The American Wind Energy Association, in its annual report to be released on Tuesday, said the amount of capacity added last year, 9,900 megawatts, was the largest on record, and was 18 percent above the capacity added in 2008, also a banner year. The group said the growth of wind power was helped by the federal stimulus package that passed a year ago, which extended a tax credit and provided other investment incentives for the industry. But the group warned that the growth could slow. Much of the wind development in 2009 was caused by momentum from 2008, as huge turbines ordered then were delivered to wind farms. In 2009, the recession idled many manufacturers and new orders weakened, which could portend an installation slowdown this year.” Read More.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Some Strange Bedfellows in This Year’s Mexican Elections
Mexidata, January 25, 2010 - “For the past six years or so, the most irreconcilable enemies in Mexican politics have been the National Action Party (PAN) and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). Ideology explains much of the enmity, with the right-wing positions of the PAN in obvious conflict with those of the leftist PRD on a range of issues, from oil reform to same-sex marriage. Specific events have also played a big role, notably Felipe Calderón’s narrow win over Andrés Manuel López Obrador in the 2006 presidential election, and the latter’s refusal to recognize it. And the gap has been reinforced by different styles and leading characters, best exemplified by the populist rhetoric of López Obrador versus the egg-headed calm of President Calderón. Against that backdrop, one piece of recent news is somewhat shocking: PAN and PRD leaders have announced a plan to unite behind a single, still-to-be-determined candidate (though he or she will be from the left) in the upcoming governor’s race in Hidalgo. Similar arrangements were to follow in Puebla, Oaxaca, Durango and other states where the PRI’s rule is ironclad.” Read More.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Governator’s fuel plan could cause ‘collateral damage’ to U.S.Governator’s fuel plan could cause ‘co
Calgary Herald, January 23, 2010 - “Jeff Rubin, writing in a blog post this week, said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his gubernatorial colleagues in other U.S. states should think twice before banning dirty oil from Alberta. “If they don’t like the fuel Canada has to offer, their only other choice is to get off the road entirely,” said Rubin. American domestic production is half what it used to be. Mexico’s reserves are drying up. Venezuela’s only additional production source is its Orinoco tarsands, similar to Alberta’s and owned by a state controlled Hugo Chavez, who isn’t exactly warm and fuzzy about America. As for the Middle East, OPEC member states are gobbling up 10 million barrels of cheap subsidized oil every day, Rubin notes. “The reason the United States will be so dependent on Canadian tarsands is that there ain’t a whole lot else left,” says the author of Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the End of Globalization. Despite this reality, Arnold and governors in 11 other states are bent on bringing in a low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS) for vehicles—a solution more simplistic than the script for Commando. Low-carbon fuel legislation will do nothing to prevent global warming and will only jeopardize America’s fuel security, according to Shantel Beach, a researcher with the Washington, D.C.,-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA). Read More.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Premiers, governors, promote Canada-U.S. energy corridor
canada.com - “Western premiers and U.S. governors on Sunday hailed their push to develop a cross-border Western Energy Corridor that will be the largest on the planet and one that develops both non-renewable and clean-energy options. Spearheaded by Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall and Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, the initiative could open new markets to the three Prairie provinces, which are all major energy producers in both renewables and fossil fuels. Wall, Alberta’s Ed Stelmach and Manitoba’s Gary Doer — all in Park City, Utah for the Western Governors’ Association annual conference — met Sunday with state political leaders to explore the potential for a broader energy relationship. “The western part of North America has this great swath of both renewables and non-renewables in terms of energy sources and huge opportunities around sustainable energy development, but we need to be co-operating,” Wall told the Calgary Herald in Park City, a mountain resort community located about 50 kilometres east of Salt Lake City.“We know that there’s an interest in the part of the consuming states perhaps on the West Coast for more renewables.” Read More.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Expanding Use of Wind Power Feasible, but May Be Costly
The New York Times, January 20, 2010 - “Wind could replace coal and natural gas for 20 or 30 percent of electricity supplied in the eastern two-thirds of the United States by 2024, according to a study released Wednesday by the Energy Department, but doing so would require a reorganization of the power grid and a significant increase in costs. And it would have only a modest impact on cutting carbon emissions, the study found. The Energy Department under President Obama has been a proponent of renewable energy, and the study takes a head-on approach to the question of wind energy: how much can the system use and still maintain stability, given that the amount of power generated is as fickle as the breeze.The answer, according to the study, is that heavy reliance on wind energy is “technically feasible” but will require significant expansion of the power grid.The cost of integrating wind into the existing system is “really, really small compared to other major costs,” said David Corbus, a senior engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which supervised the study. He put the price at about half a cent per kilowatt-hour, a quantity of electricity that now sells for an average of about 11 cents. A bigger obstacle is how to overcome a political impasse over building power lines, and how to find, and finance, sites for 10 times more generating capacity. The study did not address those questions.Adding wind gets progressively more difficult as the amount used rises because of wind’s intermittent nature and the need for back-up power generation, according to the study, which was prepared for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Without a better grid, the system would often waste large amounts of wind power because at many times during the year, the power grid would not be able to handle the traffic. But the amount of wasted wind energy, and the amount of backup needed, would decline as grid connections got better, the study said. A better grid, Mr. Corbus said, would also lead to fewer blackouts.” Read More.
