This promises to be the moment when green goes mainstream

For the past two years, one phrase has appeared so often on BusinessGreen.com that we really ought to use it as a tag line. The details vary depending on the story, but it always tends to run a little something like this: "the product/project/car will be available from/come online in 2010/11/12".
Regardless of the unsatisfying fudge delivered at Copenhagen and the fact that the negotiations to deliver a binding deal will now dominate next year in the same way that the build up to Copenhagen dominated the past 12 months, 2010 marks the beginning of a critical period in the development of the low-carbon economy. This promises to be the moment when green goes mainstream.

Some will argue that this has already happened and if Copenhagen demonstrated one thing conclusively it is that climate change and the environment are now firmly entrenched as a central feature of the global political narrative. We might not be in agreement on how to tackle it, but we are in agreement that it is an unprecedented and potentially catastrophic challenge, and that it provides unprecedented and potentially gargantuan opportunities for the business community.

But if low-carbon thinking has become a normalised component of political and corporate thinking over the past three or four years, 2010 is the year when it really begins the long journey towards changing both the way businesses operate and people live.

Take electric vehicles as just one example. For the last couple of years, electric cars have been largely synonymous with the G-Wiz and other small quadricycles, which while highly successful will remain unlikely to break into the mainstream. All that will change in 2010 as the first wave of electric vehicles from conventional car manufacturers hit the roads. Nissan will launch the all-electric Leaf next year, while Peugeot, Mitsubishi, BMW, Daimler and others are all set to start selling electric vehicles either next year or in early 2011. Perhaps most significantly, GM looks set to win the race to launch a plug-in hybrid with the first Chevy Volt's slated to roll off the production line in late 2010.

The industry will be watching closely to see how these cars fare, but with early trials promising and generous incentives in place from governments around the world the prospects are good, not least because, electric engine aside, they vary little from conventional cars. Some of these zero emission electric vehicles will boast top speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour and ranges of between 100 and 150 miles between charging. They will work for most people for most journeys. Moreover, GM's plug in hybrid, which will be rapidly followed by rival models from Toyota and others, will allow drivers to travel 40 miles before the conventional engine kicks in, providing staggering fuel efficiency and an overall range of 300 miles.

This phenomenon is being repeated in countless industries. In 2010, mainstream energy companies will continue to accelerate investment in renewable energy and more and more wind farms, solar parks, biomass plants and even marine energy devices will come online. Similarly, we will see more airlines undertaking test flights utilising blends of biofuel, more technology firms debuting devices that use ever lower amounts of power, and more businesses re-engineering supply chains and refurbishing buildings to cut their emissions.

It seems that in a way the car companies were right when they used the excuse that it took them years to develop new low-carbon vehicles in order to avoid more demanding emission standards. Businesses really started to think about the imperative to develop cleaner and more sustainable products back in 2006, and now, precisely on schedule, a wave of increasingly mainstream clean technologies is arriving.

Policy measures will also continue to accelerate the adoption of these technologies, most notably in the UK in the form of the Carbon Reduction Commitment and the Clean Energy Cashback feed-in tariff scheme, both of which come into effect in the spring and both of which should serve to further normalise board-level interest in energy efficiency and the installation of small-scale renewable energy systems.

And there will be further evidence of the mainstreaming of environmental issues in May (or possibly March) when climate change policy promises to play a surprisingly prominent role in the British election.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, it is currently looking just about odds on that President Obama will win his tussle with the Senate and get a US climate bill passed at some point during the first few months of the year.

None of this is to suggest that 2010 will deliver a genuine step change in the global economy's development of low-carbon technologies and business models. The high-profile 10:10 campaign for everyone to cut emissions by 10 per cent in 2010, for example, is a well intentioned pipe dream.

But the next 12 months will fire the starting pistol on a decade which, if the pace of technical development continues to accelerate at its current rate, will ensure that the concept of a green business becomes meaningless. Not because they start to disappear, but because with lower carbon businesses dominating the mainstream virtually all businesses will be striving to be as green as possible.

F3DM start selling its first electric car

Chinese battery and car maker BYD (1211.HK), backed by U.S. billionaire Warren Buffet, said it has raised its 2010 sales target, as it prepares to roll out its first electric cars.

BYD, 10 percent owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N), aims to sell 800,000 vehicles next year, up from a previous target of 700,000 units, said Paul Lin, manager of the company's marketing department.

He attributed the revision to robust demand from Chinese consumers following Beijing's 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) economic stimulus plan, which includes several measures specifically aimed at boosting car sales.

"The company already reached its 2009 target of 400,000 vehicles in November, so now we are setting our 2010 target to double that number at 800,000 units," Lin said, adding that this year's final sales should come in at around 440,000 units.

BYD's F3 sedan was the best-selling car in China in the first 11 months of this year, leading other popular domestic and foreign models, such as, Hyundai Motor's (005380.KS) new Elantra and Chery Automobile's QQ, official data showed.

To help meet market demand, BYD's new bus plant in the central Chinese city of Changsha and a car plant in the northwestern city of Xian will start operation next year, adding up to 700,000 units of capacity, Lin said.

Henry Li, general manager of BYD Auto's export arm, told Reuters in July that the firm aims to be a major global player by 2025, with vehicle sales of 8-9 million. [ID:nHKG366761]

BYD, which had sold several hundred of its plug-in hybrid, F3DM, unveiled in December of 2008, plans to start selling its first electric car, the e6, in China in the first quarter of 2010, Lin said.

The e6 had passed government safety inspections in the country and received other necessary permits, he said, adding the firm remained committed to export the model to the United States next year.

BYD's shares, traded in Hong Kong, have surged more than 422 percent since the beginning of this year, leading a roughly 49 percent gain in the broader market .HSI and bolstering its founder, Wang Chuanfu, to the top of Forbes 2009 list of China's wealthiest.

The shares fell 3.78 percent in early afternoon trading on Wednesday, lagging a 0.51 percent fall of the market.

all-electric cars may eventually become affordable and negate their appeal

With the Prius in high demand, Toyota is making plans to launch an all-new hybrid subcompact vehicle in late 2011. A concept version the all-new hybrid-only model for the budding subcompact segment will be unveiled on Jan. 11, the first day of the North American International Auto Show’s press preview. While the Prius has a starting price of $22,400, the subcompact, which will be built on the Yaris platform, will be sold for about $15,760. The new Toyota will compete with a rumored hybrid version of Honda’s Fit subcompact.

Prius accounts for more than 75 percent of Toyota’s hybrid sales worldwide, so Toyota hopes the new hybrid will help secure its dominant position in the future. Toyota plans to produce around 150,000 annually, and by adding another high-profile hybrid to Toyota’s lineup it will not only boost sales, but also increase the profitability of the automaker’s hybrid car business by reducing the per-vehicle cost of components. Some analysts are concerned Toyota might be committing itself too much to its hybrids, however, as all-electric cars may eventually become affordable and negate their appeal. “Toyota is completely convinced about the potential for hybrids spreading to all segments,” one auto analyst told The Detroit News: “That has yet to be proven. There aren’t many places in the world where hybrids have caught on.” Toyota though seems to be hedging their bet. Its battery venture with Japan’s Panasonic Corp. is not only boosting its production capacity of nickel-metal hydride batteries in its traditional hybrids, but also providing an avenue for a battery-powered pure electric car due out in 2012.

She pointed out that Europcar was making green car hire more accessible to customers

A new study undertaken by car hire firm Europcar has revealed that Britons are falling behind when it comes to green motoring, however young drivers are leading the push for change.

The annual Europcar Observatory, an independent survey of 5,000 drivers across Europe found that 45 per cent of Brits had changed their manner of driving in some way to help save the environment, compared with 54 per cent in mainland Europe.

But in a sign of a change in thinking when it comes to car ownership, of those who have already changed their driving habits, 79 per cent are already using car hire in some form, with mostly the under 35s age bracket having the biggest impact. In the survey, over 50 per cent of drivers in this age range said they planned to give up their car and 60 per cent would opt for a car share service instead.

But as 45 per cent were happy to drive differently to be green, Britons are not yet ready to make the change to a hybrid or an electric car, compared with 65 per cent of drivers in Europe. The study showed that European drivers had a higher exposure and greater experience with alternative fuelled cars, with 30 percent having driven one compared to only 18 per cent in the UK.

Marketing director of Europcar, Catriona Lougher said it seemed that most households were doing their bit by recycling, using low voltage light bulbs and turning down the thermostat, but when it comes to maintaining the car, keeping the green message at the front of the mind was still a challenge.

She said that a car is still considered a status symbol in the UK and that using a more cost efficient car or changing driving habits by easing off the pedal or using the car less was still not a priority for most British drivers.

She pointed out that Europcar was making green car hire more accessible to customers by offering free delivery and collection to a fleet comprising some of the newest and most fuel-efficient vehicles on the market, including hybrids.

electric car plant at the old NASA site in Downey, has donated 100 remote-control cars to needy children in the area

Tesla Motors, which is in negotiations to build an electric car plant at the old NASA site in Downey, has donated 100 remote-control cars to needy children in the area.

The city received the toys this week and distributed them to True Lasting Connections Resource Center, or TLC, PTA HELPS, Angel Tree, Downey Police Officers' Association and Downey Firemen's Association. Those organizations will pass the toys along to children in time for the holidays.

"We are extremely thankful and appreciate Tesla's generosity," said Downey Mayor Anne Bayer. "Our local needy children will have one more reason to smile about this holiday season."

Tesla has memorandum of understanding to build an electric car production line on the Downey Studios property off Lakewood Boulevard and Columbia Way. The San Carlos-based company also is considering a site in Long Beach, the former Boeing 717 site, also off Lakewood Boulevard.

Free Electric Cars

The government wants to get gas-powered cars off the street by giving such a big tax rebate on electric cars, that they are free. Demand is high -- www.FreeElectricCar.com is "selling" around 60 golf carts (or electric vehicles) a day.

The story was featured last week on CNN Anderson Cooper and on Fox Business with John Stossel and ABC News. Customers like the free and green aspect of the cars.

Here are the top 5 benefits to owning an electric car: "Hurry to cash in on one of the best opportunities yet for tax payers. You must purchase a qualified vehicle on or before December 31, 2009 to qualify for the tax rebate to get your free electric vehicle. This is even better than the cash for clunkers or the homebuyer's rebate," said Drive Electric CEO Colin Reilly who started www.freeelectriccar.com

With each electric vehicle purchased, the owner will receive a certified "Proof of Purchase" to document the date of purchase and a copy of the IRS Certification letter. Then they should use the new tax form 8936 to claim the credit. The vehicles can be purchased online and take approximately 4-6 weeks to be delivered. It is a tax credit which means a dollar for dollar reduction in taxes owed to the IRS. It is not an income deduction. For example, a 4 passenger vehicle at www.FreeElectricCar.com is on sale for $6,496. The tax credit is also $6,496 - making the vehicle free.

To meet the requirements are low emission and have seat belts, lights, turn signals and most safety items that are on a car. They travel 25mph and are street legal.

By buying green cars, we safe our future, environment and our children

In this five-part series, the National Post looks at unexpected ways to help the environment. Read part one here and part two here. Today, in the third instalment, the problem with public transit.

When the Toronto Transit Commission announced in November it would hike fares a 25¢ in the new year — a roughly 10% increase — it blamed the usual suspects: rising costs of fuel and wages.

The system, said TTC chairman Adam Giambrone, faced a $100-million shortfall in next year's operating budget.

When the bad news broke, the Torontoist.com, compared the inflation of the TTC's 21 fare hikes in the past 30 years against the price of gasoline and against the inflation rate.

Read a transcript of the chat with Kevin Libin about the future of transit

Consistently, the analysis found, TTC fares had risen faster than inflation, and far faster than the price of gas. Between 1980 and 2010, the cash fare, adjusted for inflation, soared more than 80% and token prices are up 50%. The price of a litre of unleaded gas? Up about 30%, without inflation. As for wage increases, Statistics Canada reported last year that the median full-time, full- year salary of average Canadians has hardly increased at all since 1980.

Although it is charging more than ever, getting heftier federal, provincial and municipal subsidies than at any time in its history, although fuelling a car is pricier; and though its customer base has never been larger or keener to reduce its carbon footprint, the TTC, the largest system in the country, is struggling as much as ever to stem its losses. If this is the future of public transit, it does not look bright.

As other major systems across the continent strain in similar circumstances, the strategy of public transit system boosters has been to promote the service as an environmental necessity. In the name of Mother Nature, North American transit systems have received billions in subsidies in recent years – even though they were never developed for environmental purposes in the first place.

If the goal is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, air pollution and gas consumption, and maximize the environmental impact of sustainability spending, we may be better off without publicly funding transit at all.

"Subsidized transit is not sustainable by definition," says Wendell Cox, a transport policy consultant in St. Louis, and former L.A. County Transportation commissioner. "The potential of public transit has been so overblown it's almost scandalous."

It's not that environmentally minded transit promoters are being dishonest when they argue that city buses are more efficient than private cars: It's that they're talking about a fictional world where far more people ride buses. Mass transit vehicles use up roughly the same energy whether they are full or empty, and for much of the time, they're more empty than full.

For the bulk of the day, and on quieter routes, the average city bus usually undoes whatever efficiencies are gained during the few hours a day, on the few routes, where transit is at its peak.

Last year, policy analyst Randal O'Toole ran the numbers for the CATO Institute, where he is a senior fellow, comparing mass transit vehicles to private vehicles, ranking each based on how much energy they consume and how much CO2 they emit. The average motorized city bus, he reports, burns 27% more energy per mile than a private car and emits 31% more pounds of CO2. The U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics confirms that the average city bus requires 20% more energy per passenger than the average car.

"Unfortunately, right now the state of the art is that you're generally better off with private automobiles when you're talking about energy utilization. About the only way that transit can be competitive for energy or for environmental quality is if the transit lines gets an incredible amount of use, far higher than is now normally the case," says Tom Rubin, a transit policy consultant in California, and former chief financial officer of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. But crowded systems are a turn-off for riders, he says, so more passengers means even more buses and rail cars. "It's almost impossible to make transit more attractive without spending a huge amount of money."

The bus may be the most inefficient part of any major city's transit network, but they're the most vital part. Wider use of subways and light rail relies utterly on a feeder system of buses, says Michael Roschlau, president of the Canadian Urban Transit Association. "You can't just run [Calgary's] C-Train by itself and expect everyone to drive to the stations," he says. "Same thing for the subway in Toronto or Skytrain in Vancouver."

Without buses to carry them from their neighbourhood to the train stations, even fewer citizens would ride the trains, making trains, in turn, less efficient per passenger. Already, when trains, subways and streetcars are combined, the average public transit system is still no more efficient that private cars, according to the CATO study. All transit together does emit less CO2 than passenger cars carrying the same number of people the same distance (about 13% less) but even that gap is disappearing — fast.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Data Book shows that while transit's energy efficiency has worsened in recent decades — transit buses today consume 4,315 BTUs per passenger mile, or about 50% more energy than in 1980 — the trend in cars has been the opposite direction: Today's cars are already nearly 20% more efficient than they were 25 years ago, down from 4,348 BTUs per passenger mile in 1980 to 3,514 in 2007.

The environmental case for public transit is falling just as fast, now that hybrid cars are achieving mass market status, with 65 models set to hit North American roads next year, Chevrolet planning to launch its electric Volt by 2011 and manufacturers rolling out super-high efficiency vehicles. In the next few years especially, the average energy consumption of passenger vehicles, and their emission levels, will only improve, with projections by the International Council on Clean Transportation showing the average auto could beat all public transit modes for efficiency and CO2 within the next five years.

"At this point, a Toyota Prius is less greenhouse-intensive than New York City Transit," Mr. Cox says. "Whatever advantage that transit has at the moment is going away very quickly."

Once eco-conscious urbanites realize the bus is worse for the planet than cars, they'll have little reason to keep riding, making transit's comparative per-passenger environmental footprint look even worse. And while transit system operators talk of "greening" their fleet, the fact is they face substantial limits. Whatever green gains transit can make, automobiles can probably do better, Mr. Rubin says.

When the federal government, the B.C. government and BC Transit revealed plans to run 20 hydrogen-powered buses in Whistler, B.C., in February for the Olympics, even the hard-green David Suzuki Foundation balked at the preposterous $2-million-per-bus price tag — four times the price of a standard diesel — arguing that the money would have been better spent on traditional transit initiatives, which "are on life support as far as the financial needs go," Ian Bruce, the group's climate-change campaigner, said.

He's surely right about the pointlessness of what will amount to a four-year, $90-million showpiece of technology not even remotely realistic for actual, financially strapped public transit systems.

And more money for diesel-powered buses may be hardly more worthwhile: The fact is that despite best efforts of transit planners and funding governments, and surveys showing a public keen on environmentalism, most commuters simply will not, or cannot, ride.

Last year's census data confirmed that the vast majority of Canadians have little use for transit. Just 216,000 more people rode at least once than did in 2001, a half-a-percentage increase, but that's actually a decrease relative to the 5.4% population growth over the same period. At the same time, Statistics Canada shows that operating costs for Canadian transit system has ballooned, up 30% from $3.7-billion in 2003 to $4.8-billion in 2007. In the United States, public transit's market share for travel has fallen by a third since 1980, from 1.5% to 1% in 2005. If anything were to get people out of their cars to stand at a bus stop, it would be the severe pain of soaring gas prices. But even as fuel in the United States. approached the unseen price of $4 a gallon in 2008, public transit ridership rose a mere 3.3%.

Transit boosters insist that we must go further, and redesign our cities to support transit systems. "Our cities continue to approve the suburban sorts of development that are very difficult to serve using public transit," Stephen Hazell, executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada, told reporters upon release of last year's disappointing ridership data. But the thousands of delivery trucks, taxi drivers, emergency vehicles, service trucks, car-bound workers and buses mean even high-density cities will keep needing highways, ring roads, bridges and flyovers. Meanwhile the massive cost of overhauling cities is just more billions to address an automobile environmental problem that is already on the way to resolving itself — money that might be better, and more effectively deployed toward other earth-friendly measures, such as reducing traffic congestion.

A congestion charge toll implemented in Stockholm in 2007, for instance, reduced CO2 emissions in that city by roughly 16% last year, cut traffic by 18%, and, because it exempts low-emissions vehicles, led to a tripling of purchases of so-called green cars. Best of all, it sustains itself.

More roads, and more efficient roads, still won't address public transit's original, non-environmental purpose: providing mobility for citizens who lack their own. But where public transit is absent, or impractical, solutions for the small minority totally lacking other means have readily sprung up. Ridesharing applications for smart phones — users enter their location and desired destination and a cost-conscious carpooler responds — are already in wide use, Mr. Rubin says. Self-sustaining, small-scale private jitney systems have successfully operated for years in Atlantic City and Puerto Rico (all North America's early public transit systems were privately operated until they were nationalized). And with billions freed up from public transit funds, it appears entirely feasible to simply offer subsidized Prius taxis, or even car subsidies, to the small portion of the public entirely reliant on public mobility. A study last year by HDR Decision Economics, commissioned by the Canadian Urban Transit Association, found that Canada's public systems will need $78-billion more in infrastructure spending and $3.6-billion in annual subsidies to reach optimum capacity. For that kind of money, Canadian governments could, if they wanted, hand out $16,000 car or taxi allowances to every single Canadian who rides transit even casually, and still have $50- billion left over at the end of the decade. That plan wouldn't please the public unions and other transit-reliant lobbies pressing for more green-related transit funding. But it would relieve Canadians from having to perpetually prop up a system that's increasingly unsustainable — financially and environmentally.

The commission said the municipality is still working on other related programs to help buyers offset the higher purchase costs of new energy vehicles

Shanghai, December 11 (Gasgoo.com) This week Shanghai's economic planning body has denied earlier media reports that the city was trying to boost sales of cleaner energy cars by offering free license plates to go with these vehicles, CCTV.com said.

The Shanghai Municipal Economic and Information Commission said the plan is a good idea but would be very difficult to implement. The planner claimed it has studied the possibility of free license plates for new energy cars, but fears the program would cause more problems then it would solve.

At present, auto consumers in Shanghai can only get their vehicles registered through car plate auctions. The average minimum cost for a car plate stands at 30,000 yuan ($4,390).

The commission said the municipality is still working on other related programs to help buyers offset the higher purchase costs of new energy vehicles. Extra subsidies may be offered to buyers of eco-friendly vehicles which consume less energy.

The city will help its public transportation sector offset some battery costs for running electric buses. A battery-electric-bus is priced about 2 million yuan. Shanghai has set up an e-bus battery renting firm, due to serve the 2010 World Expo first.

The Wall Street Journal that he thought the car drove "rough," with "squishy" handling, and that it needed more refinement

BYD Co., the Chinese auto maker part-owned by one of Warren Buffett's companies, is likely to choose the Los Angeles area as the lead market for the electric car it plans to start selling in the U.S. late next year, a senior executive said.

BYD is also leaning toward choosing the West Coast metropolis as home to its U.S. headquarters for the auto business, Henry Li, a BYD senior director in charge of its auto business outside China, said in an interview Wednesday. Mr. Li said an official decision has not been made, but the Los Angeles area is "at the top of the list" and is likely to be chosen. The Los Angeles area is attractive because electric cars are "most suitable for densely populated areas with lots of air pollution problems," and because the region is one of the largest and wealthiest car markets and is known to be the leader in adopting new technologies, the executive said.

California is shaping up as a central battleground for electric vehicle launches next year. General Motors Co. said earlier this month it will focus on California for the Volt, a heavily electrified, plug-in hybrid car. Coda Automotive, a California-based start-up, is also targeting southern California for the planned launch by late next year of a $40,000-plus all-electric battery compact sedan, to be built in China using Chinese lithium-ion battery technology. Japan's Nissan MotorCo. is also putting the finishing touches on plans for the launch of its all-electric Leaf model in the U.S. and Japan by end-2010, although it hasn't said yet where it will focus initially.

BYD's U.S. launch is being watched in the industry as a test of the global ambitions of China's auto sector to use electric-vehicle technology to close the distance with more established car makers. It has said that it plans to sell the all-electric, battery-powered e6 model for slightly more than $40,000 – competitive with some bigger rivals. The company wants to build a beachhead on the West Coast to tap American consumers' growing appetite for fuel-efficient cars much like Japanese auto makers did decades ago.

Mr. Li said that to pick the lead market for the five-seat e6, BYD has spent the past couple of years talking to different local governments to discern their attitudes toward clean-energy vehicles, and what kinds of incentives or other support they might offer for the industry.

BYD plans initially to make the e6 available only to fleet customers in the U.S., like utilities, and will sell it directly to them instead of using dealerships, "most likely through some type of lease program," Mr. Li said. BYD plans to develop a dealer network later, as it makes more products available in the U.S.

BYD plans to later expand e6 sales north to San Francisco and eventually to further cities like Seattle, Chicago, New York and Boston, Mr. Li said, without specifying a timetable. "Any of those markets is our potential market," he said, adding that BYD also wants to expand its product offerings to include other new-energy cars as well as gasoline-fueled cars.

BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu said in an interview in August that the company wants to use the e6, one of its most advanced cars, to build its brand name in the U.S. He said the company will target government agencies, utilities and "maybe some celebrities" as potential customers. BYD hopes to enter Europe with a similar strategy in 2011 or later.

The Chinese company's ambitions face challenges. It is still awaiting approval from China's government to begin selling the e6 in its home market. And it remains unseen whether the e6 will satisfy finicky U.S. customers.

The technology chief of one global auto maker who recently drove an e6 told The Wall Street Journal that he thought the car drove "rough," with "squishy" handling, and that it needed more refinement.

Mr. Li said any early evaluation of the e6's performance is meaningless since it would be based on test drives of an early prototype of the car. "Obviously we're improving the car everyday," he said.

he said would start with the construction of a lithium carbonate factory and end with the production of electric cars

Bolivian President Evo Morales claimed victory in elections yesterday following a pledge to extend his socialist “revolution” and boost payouts to the poor and elderly in the natural gas-rich nation.

Morales, a former farmer and union leader who heads the Movement Toward Socialism party, had 63 percent support, according to exit polls broadcast by television station Red Uno. Former Governor Manfred Reyes Villa had 27 percent. Official results weren’t yet available.

“The people, with their participation, showed once again that it’s possible to change Bolivia,” Morales, 50, told supporters from the balcony of the presidential palace in La Paz last night. “We have the responsibility to deepen and accelerate this process of change.”

As Bolivia’s first leader to win consecutive re-election since 1964, Morales said he will use his five-year term to expand state control over the country’s natural resources and distribute revenue from state-controlled businesses to the poor. He plans to rewrite about 100 laws, including mining and energy codes, as his party appeared headed for its first-ever majority in both houses of Congress.

About 5.2 million voters were eligible to take part in the vote, the national electoral court said.

‘Best Moment Ever’

“Brother Evo Morales is working for the poorest people, for the people that are fighting for their survival,” street vendor Julio Fernandez, 47, said after casting his vote in the city of El Alto, just outside La Paz.

The vote took place almost 11 months after Morales won approval in a nationwide referendum for a new constitution abolishing a ban on consecutive re-election. He said he won’t run again in 2015.

Morales said last night that his party, known as MAS, won a two-thirds majority in Congress. That will allow him to make key appointments without consulting the opposition, said Erasto Almeida, a Latin America analyst at the Eurasia Group in New York.

“This will give Morales more freedom to mold Bolivia’s legal apparatus and institutions according to his nationalist and state-centric views, given that the new Congress will vote on a number of bills necessary to implement Bolivia’s new constitution,” Almeida wrote in a Dec. 4 report.

Gas Reserves

Reyes Villa, 54, said during the campaign that the Morales government didn’t seek out new markets for exports like natural gas and metals, costing the country $2 billion annually in lost revenue. Bolivia has the second-largest natural gas reserves on the continent, after Venezuela.

“It’s been a hard battle against lies, against political persecution,” Reyes Villa said, speaking from the eastern Santa Cruz province. “We’re going to keep fighting for democracy, for the country and for everyone counting on us.”

The number of Bolivians living in poverty rose 0.5 percentage point to 60.1 percent in 2007 from 2005, the year before Morales took office, according to the National Statistics Institute. The government agency hasn’t published data for the past two years.

Bolivia’s projected economic growth of 2.8 percent this year is the most of 32 Western hemisphere nations tracked by the International Monetary Fund in its October World Economic Outlook. The Washington-based lender forecasts contractions of 0.7 percent in Brazil and 7.3 percent in Mexico, Latin America’s two biggest economies.

Morales said he plans to use revenue from new state businesses to increase one of his largest stipend programs, which targets low-income Bolivians over the age of 60. He said he may increase the stipends to 7,764 bolivianos ($1,098) per year from 1,800 bolivianos.

Morales also promised his supporters new petrochemical plants and a plan to process the country’s lithium reserves, which he said would start with the construction of a lithium carbonate factory and end with the production of electric cars.

Bolivia’s salt flats contain about half the world’s known 11 million metric tons of lithium reserves, according to a U.S. Geological Survey report