BRASIL: RIO DE JANEIRO, ago (Tierramerica) Los ministerios de Ambiente y Desarrollo Social de Brasil indemnizaran a los trabajadores que perdieron sus empleos al clausurarse las carbonerias y empresas madereras ilegales con las ganancias de la venta de madera incautada.La medida, que se adoptara este mes, fue anunciada por el ministro de Ambiente, Carlos Minc. La proxima venta de 12.000 metros cubicos de madera incautada en el estado amazonico de Rondonia rendira unos ocho millones de reales (4,2 millones de dolares), informo.La indemnizacion obedece a buenas intenciones, pero trabajar en aserraderos y carbonerias ilegales que no respetan los derechos laborales es la unica actividad que muchos tienen para sustentar a sus familias, observo Antonio Lucas, de la Confederacion Nacional de Trabajadores en la Agricultura.Esos trabajadores deberian ser capacitados para otro empleo, pero las politicas gubernamentales no son suficientes para sustituir los puestos perdidos, dijo a Tierramerica. The U.S. Department of Energy just announced that it will provide $300 million in stimulus funds to 25 projects aimed at putting 9,000 more alternative-fuel vehicles on Americas roads, and building the infrastructure needed to power them, including 542 fueling and charging stations across the country. All told, these projects now under the banner of the D.O.E.s long-standing Clean Cities program could cut petroleum use by up to 38 million gallons a year thats nearly 1 million barrels of oil, VentureBeat said.The bulk of the funding will be used to accelerate adoption of hybrids, electric vehicles and plug-in electric hybrids, as well as natural gas and biofuel-powered vehicles. The refueling stations included in the plan will be designed to power cars running on natural gas, propane, biodiesel, ethanol and, of course, electricity. In order to receive the money, each of the projects named had to raise twice the matching funds, allowing for more capital-intensive projects.Instead of awarding money to companies tackling these areas, the D.O.E. is funding local government organizations charged with greening transportation in their jurisdictions. It is also encouraging recipients to introduce fleets of advanced vehicles with industry partners in order to spur eventual commercial adoption. For example, the San Bernadino Associated Governments were awarded $9.95 million to add 262 natural gas-powered heavy-duty trucks with the help of transportation vendor J.B. Hunt. The Maryland Energy Administration received $5.9 million to fund the purchase of 150 hybrid-electric trucks for use by Nestle and UPS among others. And the City of Chicagos Department of Environment will add 554 alternative fuel and hybrid electric vehicles to the city with nearly $15 million from the D.O.E. The strategy empowers local governments to support the projects that make the most sense for the region a fairly novel concept. Municipalities are also among the largest owners of fleet vehicles, which, once converted, would allow the technology to spread faster than it might otherwise. So far, the stimulus money earmarked for the cleantech sector has been handed out directly to businesses, including the $2.4 billion it distributed to 48 advanced battery and transportation companies less than a month ago.The Clean Cities program is not a creation of the stimulus package. Kicked