Good morning and welcome to an award-winning newsletter! Today, we talk about the ongoing feud between oil interests and environmentalists over drilling in the mouth of the Amazon River. Also, a much-needed victory for the government in Congress. And a look at Brazil’s internet divide.
- 🏆 Today’s issue has a special flavor, as the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers has just awarded us the Best Newsletter in the Americas for small newsrooms!
☕ If you like our work and want to give us an extra boost, you can fill up our reporters’ coffee mugs. Supporters get exclusive perks! Find out more.
Amazon drilling: Marina Silva 1-0 Petrobras
Ibama, Brazil’s environmental protection agency, on Wednesday denied Petrobras permission to explore offshore oil reserves off the mouth of the Amazon River — in a region known as the “Equatorial Margin,” which encompasses the northern and northeastern coasts of Brazil.
No surprise. The decision follows the recommendation of Ibama’s technical assessment unit and cites “worrisome inconsistencies” in Petrobras’s studies to ensure that oil operations would be safe for the environment.
Context. The Equatorial Margin, which also includes oil fields in Suriname and Guyana, is one of the world’s most attractive new...