Speech 20 March 2014 - Join the Energy Revolution: I would like to thank organizers for this opportunity, to talk on behalf of Romanian people which couldn’t be here today. First of all, I would like to talk about the context in Romania, where the government is formed by parties which won the elections because of their position against shale gas, and after coming into power, they became the biggest lobbyists for shale gas and fracking! Today, 70 % of Romanian territory is leased for shale gas explorations and exploitations, in spite of the lack of regulations concerning unconventional gas. The process of installing shale gas wells started already, in a complete lack of transparency, ignoring the national and the European legislation, which calls for public consultation and dialogue with local communities, when it involves industrial projects with potential high impact on environment. Yet, when these consultations take place , they are nothing but pure propaganda for shale gas and fracking, authorities using European grants for making publicity for fracking, instead of just informing people, according to the law. One of the villages most affected today in Romania is Pungesti, where, since 2nd of December, villagers are under a “special security zone”, which means that everybody trying to enter the village is being legitimated by special riot police forces. The villagers have been beaten , intimidated, threatened to lose their social benefits, all of these for opposing to shale gas exploitation in their village. All these abuses were reported by several NGOs ( Friends of the Earth). Two days ago , components of the hydraulic fracturing well were brought in Pungesti, and these measures of “special protection area” went up a few steps, county roads being blocked by riot police , preventing anyone from reaching the area where Chevron is going to frack. In other areas, where other companies are exploring conventional/ unconventional gas, the legal regulations are totally ignored, the wells being built very close to the villages, sometimes at only 100m distance, the trucks as well as the drilling wells working 24/7 , is preventing people from resting. Groups of activists in Romania have hundreds of testimonies from villagers complaining about un-breathable air, about damages to their houses and about the constant and heavy noise from drillings. Many villages report water sources contamination but the authorities lag in addressing the problems. The community of Izvoarele village were left without drinking water since last fall when the ground water was contaminated by oil&gas activities. They receive 6 liters of water per week/family from the city hall, and sometimes, according to testimonies, the authorities forget to supply them with water… But not only in Romania Basic human rights are violated not only in Romania but also in UK, one of the oldest and respected democracy in the world, where people are being arrested and beaten as well for opposing to shale gas exploitations in their country. Few days ago, in Barton Moss, several people were arrested and brutally treated by local police, for the same reason. Why would we replicate the US shale gas boom in Europe, when we know very well that this would not be possible for a lot of reasons ( geological conditions, legal status of mineral resources, population density, population’s strong opposition ) , but also because the US seem to have paid a huge cost for exploiting shale gas. There is nowadays a growing trend to ban fracking, which has already happened in several cities in different states and a growing opposition from the local communities and the farming associations. According to several studies, fracking has a huge impact on our climate , as has the burning of fossil fuels, in general. Scientific consensus has asserted that 80% of the total world’s known fossil fuels must be left in the ground to prevent further climate destabilization and warming the planet beyond 2°C, a tipping point for our climate. Considering all these facts, we think that it is not acceptable to continually increase the risk threshold, with huge benefits only for oil companies and irremediable damages for the communities, which, eventually, will have to pay these damages. We should remember as well the environmental disasters in Chernobyl -1986 and Fukushima- 2011 and we should put an end to these extremely dangerous methods of obtaining energy and we should move as fast as possible to green , renewable energy and give up dirty, destructive fossil fuels or nuclear energy ! There are other options to cover the global need for energy , we only need to give them a chance, and to humanity as well, before it is too late! Id like to ask your support in having a moment of silence in respect to the latest victim of the oil industry in Romania - His name is Marian Burcelea, and he was 9 year old when he died on 28 of February this year intoxicated by gas around an OMV well, improperly maintained. Mihaela Popescu Jurist 20 March 2014 Brussels
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 14:41:08 +0000
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