Photo: Raul Oliveira Alves | Wikimedia Commons
Brazil's environmental regulator has refused to grant a license for a controversial offshore oil drilling project near the mouth of the Amazon River, a unique and biodiverse area that is home to little-studied swaths of mangroves and a coral reef. Eighty civil society and environmental organizations had called for the license to be rejected pending in-depth study. With Brazil’s existing production set to peak in coming years, state-run oil company Petrobras has sought to secure more reserves off Brazil's northern coast. "There is no doubt that Petrobras was offered every opportunity to remedy critical points of its project, but that it still presents worrisome inconsistencies for the safe operation in a new exploratory frontier with high socioenvironmental vulnerability," wrote agency president Rodrigo Agostinho.
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