Word: vietnamization
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...Vietnam's leaders believe they have little choice. To maintain economic growth of around 8% per year, the state power company, Electricity of Vietnam (EVN), needs to double its capacity to an estimated 26,000 megawatts by 2010. Vietnam's hydropower potential is nearly exhausted - the 2,400-megawatt Son La dam now under construction is the last feasible major project, EVN spokesman Nguyen Duc Long says. Prices for natural gas, another fuel source for electrical generators, are up 15-20% over last year, and domestic gas reserves are too small to meet demand. Vietnam is planning nuclear power plants...
...which switched to gas-fired power plants in recent years, are now turning back to coal. There's no shortage of investors. Despite objections from environmental groups, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) last month agreed to fund the $1 billion, 2,200-megawatt Mong Duong coal plant in northern Vietnam. Greenpeace has urged the ADB to invest in alternative-energy projects instead. But technologies such as wind power aren't advanced enough to meet Vietnam's needs, says Woo Chong Um, the ADB's energy director for sustainable development. "We're trying to keep [Vietnam] as clean as possible under...
...Vietnamese officials say they are trying to ease the environmental impact of coal power by using clean-burning technology and by encouraging energy conservation. EVN has launched a rebate campaign promoting power-saving fluorescent lightbulbs; Vietnam recently passed a clean-air law that requires new coal plants to install filters for toxic sulfur dioxide and nitrogen. In Uong Bi, EVN installed filters on the new generator's smokestack - a measure that tea-shop owner Dang says has reduced the black smoke. But even the most advanced technologies can't cut CO2 emissions by much. Carbon sequestration - a proposed method...
...Poverty isn't, and EVN's Long says Vietnam's priority is economic development - and that requires abundant electricity for manufacturing and to meet the needs of an expanding middle class. "If we don't use coal power, then we'll have a beautiful environment but a lot of poverty," says Long. "We have to make a choice." Vietnam has decided to turn the lights on now, and deal with climate change later...
...chief interpreter of law, the Supreme Court, has long struggled to create a working definition of religion that is both inclusive and effective at distinguishing secular from sacred. During the Vietnam War, for example, in U.S. v. Seeger, the Court approved “conscientious objector status” for people who held a “sincere and meaningful” belief which “occupies a place in the life of its possessor parallel to that filled by the orthodox belief...