Hi all, Yet more proof that large hydro is not the answer. See this section of http://www.crest.org/repp_pubs/articles/envImp/03climatechange.htm "A potentially important aspect of the methane problem, about which little certain information exists, concerns large hydropower facilities. The World Commission on Dams (WCD), set up by the World Bank and the World Conservation Union (IUCN) to assess the role of dams in energy and water development, notes that oxygen-poor hydropower reservoirs can vent substantial quantities of methane, especially early in their lifetime, due to rotting vegetation beneath the waterline. ^*57 <javascript:openWindow('00notes.htm#57', 'Notes', '375', '425')>* (Well-oxygenated reservoirs emit CO2 rather than methane.) For this reason, large, shallow hydropower reservoirs that inundate large quantities of biomass may not be justifiable on the basis of contributions to the mitigation of climate change. For example, the Petit-Saut hydroelectric dam in French Guiana, which supplies power to the launch site of Europe's Ariane rocket program, submerged 365 square kilometers of tropical forest. One study reckons that during its first 20 years Petit-Saut will emit the equivalent of 66 million metric tons of CO2 - about 85% from methane and the remainder from CO2 itself - making French Guiana one of the world's largest per-capita emitters of greenhouse gases. ^*58 <javascript:openWindow('00notes.htm#58', 'Notes', '375', '425')>* While nontropical and more mature hydro-electric systems (including most U. S. facilities) have much lower emission rates, it is clear that tropical hydropower does not necessarily provide climatesafe energy, and may represent an important and poorly understood part of the climate problem.^*59 <javascript:openWindow('00notes.htm#59', 'Notes', '375', '425')> "* -- "The past is the Textbook of Tyrants; the Future the Bible of the Free" - Herman Melville