HONDURAS AND ENERGY AND CLIMATE PARTNERSHIP OF THE

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 000272 SIPDIS WHA/EPSC FOR FAITH CORNEILLE; OES FOR FRANCES COLON; DOE FOR LINDSAY EINSTEIN E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KSUM ENRG AADP SENV SUBJECT: HONDURAS AND ENERGY AND CLIMATE PARTNERSHIP OF THE AMERICAS REF: SECSTATE 34126 ¶1. Ambassador Llorens delivered reftel message to President Manuel "Mel" Zelaya and the President's Special Advisor on Energy, Moises Starkman. President Zelaya expressed his total support for the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA),noting the strong existing cooperation on renewable energy issues with the USG. Zelaya discussed his visit in February to Washington to discuss renewable energy cooperation with Secretary of Energy Chu, as well as his follow-on trip to the National Renewable Energy Lab in Denver, Colorado. Zelaya also cited his strong support for creating the legislative and investment framework to promote renewable energy, and mentioned his government's successful enactment of a renewable energy promotion law and a biofuels law, which he considered to be models in the region. Zelaya added that his attempts to promote renewable energy in the country were successful and cited as an example the Mesoamerican wind project approved last October. (Comment: At 100 megawatts, this is the second largest wind project in Latin American. The Embassy worked closely with Zelaya in moving the Mesoamerica project forward, which will be powered by General Electric wind generators. End Comment). Zelaya also mentioned the fact that Honduras is a partner country in the U.S.-Brazil Biofuels Assistance Program, and the GOH seeks new opportunities to increase cooperation on reftel priority areas. ¶2. Starkman was equally enthusiastic about formalizing shared energy and climate change goals. Although he will not attend the Summit, he will prepare building blocks for President Zelaya's use in the discussion to take place at the Summit in Trinidad. Starkman committed to working with us to make the Energy and Climate Change Partnership a success. LLORENS