A weeklong uprising in Peru’s Moquegua region has placed strain on copper supplies worldwide.

The unrest began as a small protest over how little in the way of mining profits was being used to help residents of the region, but quickly swelled to 20,000 people blocking major highways and railways, including a border crossing into Chile. Protesters also blocked roads to a mine and smelter operated by Southern Copper, the country’s largest copper producer. The company warned that if access was not immediately restored, the Ilo smelter might have to be shut down due to supply shortages.

Union workers at the Cuajone mine in the region staged a two day strike in solidarity with the general unrest. Government and police offices were also burned.

When riot police attempted to clear the roads, protesters fought back, injuring 20 police and taking 60 hostage. The police were released two days later.

On June 19, the government and protest leaders reached a deal to end the blockades in exchange for public works in the region. A mostly unrelated strike at the nearby Cerro Verde mine (Peru’s largest copper mine) remains unresolved, however.

The troubles in Peru are only the most recent major supply disruptions to hit the copper industry in the last few years.

• I-10: Commissioners in Washington County, FL have voted not to endorse the construction of a new toll road connecting I-10 in Florida with Montgomery, AL. Local residents had turned out in large numbers to oppose the plan. The county’s decision is non-binding, and plans for the road are still being considered.

• I-15: The Nevada Transportation Board has endorsed a plan to build extra toll lanes along I-15 through Las Vegas (specifically: U.S. 95 to Interstate 15; I-15 to the Interstate 215 Beltway; and Summerlin Parkway to U.S. 95). The plan will now be sent to the state legislature for approval.

Canada recently announced that it has selected a location for a new Detroit-Windsor border bridge. The US site will not be selected until an Environmental Review is complete.

Currently, the only crossing between Detroit, MI and Windsor, Ontario, is the privately owned Ambassador Bridge, which does not allow hazardous cargo. The new brdige will be located in the Brighton Beach area of West Windsor and connected to Canadian provincial Highway 401. The US side will tentatively be sited in the River Rouge area and connect to I-75.

Construction is expected to start in 2009 and finish by 2014. It will reduce the distance trucks must drive to cross the border by only 5 miles, but is expected to deliver significantly more in time savings. Currently, the Ambassador Bridge is North America’s busiest border crossing, with 1.6 million truck crossings per year

For more information, including public meeting schedules, visit www.partnershipborderstudy.com.

US President George W. Bush and Republican presidential nominee John McCain have both called for Congress to lift laws that banning oil drilling of the coast of the US.

In a recent speech, Bush also pushed other expansions of petroleum infrastructure including drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, building more oil refineries and mining for oil shale in the Green River Basin of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.

With oil prices at record highs, extracting oil from shale or drilling in deeper water has become economically profitable.

The Nicaraguan government has announced that it will open up the San Cristobal volcano for bidding for the construction of a geothermal plant. San Cristobal is the country’s largest volcano.

According to statements made by President Daniel Ortega and Energy Minister Emilio Rappacioli, Nicaragua plans to build enough new geothermal and hydroelectric (read: big dams) energy capacity to generate 3,000 MW per day. Currently, 80 percent of Nicaraguan electricity is generated from petroleum. Rising oil prices have led to daily 4-hour blackouts since May.

News reports do not say whether this massive planned expansion of energy infrastructure is linked to Plan Puebla Panamá — so perhaps we can be forgiven for wondering, a) what percentage of new capacity will go to industrial manufacturing, especially products for export to the First World and b) whether the old petroleum-based plants will really be taken offline, or if this is really just a plan to increase overall capacity.

Solidarity actions continue in opposition to the construction of the I-69 NAFTA Superhighway through Indiana. On June 3, Potomac Earth First! and others held a protest outside the offices of design and engineering company Michael Baker Jr. Inc. in Fredrick, MD. On June 5, an anti-I69 banner was dropped across an I-64 overpass in Louisville, Kentucky.

Meanwhile, the ongoing treesit in southern Indiana is in need of support. Roadblock Earth First! has issued the following call for more treesitters:

“Its been over two weeks since tree sits were set up along the I-69 route in Southern Indiana, and they’ve been going strong ever since. The reactions of farmers in the area has been overwhelmingly positive, and momentum is continuing to grow. This is an open call out for folks to come to Indiana to occupy sits, help with ground support, or put up more sits of your own. All skill levels are needed and climb training can be provided for anyone who needs it. Please email roadblockefyahoo (dot) com to let us know you are coming and visit stopi69.wordpress.com for more info.”

Remember that there are lots of ways to help stop this Corridor of the Future! One way is by signing up for r X-69: a month of action, with different affinity groups each pledging to shut down construction for one day. Affinity groups sign up for a day between one and 30, but the starting date will not be known until construction actually begins. Contact Roadblock EF! for more info and sign up today!

Your assistance is needed to stop coal expansion and support resisters on Black Mesa in the Four Corners region of the USA, traditional territory of the Dine’ (Navajo) and Hopi nations.

1. Traditional Dine’ elder and resister Pauline Whitesinger was informed on May 20 that her construction of a ceremonial structure known as a hogon is illegal and has been threatened with forced demolition. Whitesinger is living on her traditional land in defiance of US government orders to relocate. She has also been an active resister of Peabody Coal’s mining of Black Mesa and its plans to expand its coal operations — including expanding the strip mine, building new pipelines and draining local aquifers.

Please help, by volunteering to travel to Black Mesa in support (to help her herd sheep, complete the hogon and monitor for her safety) and/or by writing letters protesting the threatened demolition. For more information on the case, addresses and tips on letter writing, click here.

2. The government is accepting public comments until July 7 regarding Peabody’s plans for a massive expansion of mining operations on Black Mesa. For information on how and where to comment against this plan, or for more information about the situation in general, visit Black Mesa Indigenous Support.

The road variously known as I-69, the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) and the NAFTA Superhighway will be built using existing roads as much as possible, with the construction of new roads and the seizure of private land only a last resort the I-69/TTC Project Office has announced. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) said that the original route, which would have built hundreds of miles of new road, is “no longer under consideration.”

TxDOT received 28,000 public comments, the vast majority opposing the construction of new highway.

Note that plans for the Trans-Texas Corridor are still proceeding. It is important to keep up (and escalate!) the opposition if this road is going to be stopped.

I-69 is a Corridor of the Future.

The state of Arizona has received two federal grants for Corridors of the Future-related construction projects.

The first is $1.2 million to widen I-10 in Maricopa County, between Sarival Avenue and Loop 101.

The second is $1.8 million to construct a new bridge across the Colorado River, to provide an alternative to the Hoover Dam crossing. The current route, on US 93, has sections with sharp turns, narrow roads, poor sight distance and low speed limits. In addition, federal travel restrictions put in place after 9-11further slow traffic on US 93 near Hoover Dam.

US 93 connects I-40 to I-15 (a Corridor of the Future) in Las Vegas, saving truckers headed north a half-hour over an alternate route along US 95 (the only other route involves a 250-mile detour into Barstow, CA and back).

In the first two weeks of June, the US House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee held special hearings to examine the needs of the country’s surface transportations system. The committee’s investigations will be used to inform the new federal highway funding law due to be drafted in 2009.

“Many of the nation’s surface transportation facilities are being stretched to the limit of their design life and beyond,” said committee chair James L. Oberstar, D-MN. “In addition to their age, many segments of the roadway network handle much greater volume of traffic than originally projected, including a 52.4% increase in freight ton-miles by truck between 1990 and 2005.”

In order to respond to the threat that aging infrastructure poses to the system, the US Congress is considering several bills designed to raise billions for highway maintenance and expansion. A January report by the federal National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission announced that $225 per year in funding is needed for maintenance and expansion of transportation infrastructure over the next 50 years. Current yearly federal spending is closer to $85 billion per year.