/ world today news/ There is a moratorium imposed in Bulgaria, but it cannot make us calm enough, because of the continuous attempts of lobbyists to drop it.
The title of my new book “Shale gas – the choice is him or us” is one of the slogans in our campaign in the period 2011 – 2013. My only goal was for more people to know the truth about its harm, since our journalists are still in debt to society on this poignant subject. Every day in the world press there is a lot of data about the places where shale gas is extracted, mainly – in the homeland of fracking, the USA. But many of the shocking facts do not reach Bulgarians en masse.
In 2004, Dick Cheney, the vice president during the administration of George Bush /2001-2009/, made it so that he removed the extraction technology of fracking and all the activities surrounding it from a number of laws and practically decriminalized them. This is also due to the fact that for a long time there was silence on the subject and they explained to us how there is a lack of evidence about the harm of fracking. Subsequently, out-of-court settlements with confidentiality clauses were made in incidents and people’s attempts to protect their rights in court. For a long time everything was hidden from the public, but now we have convictions against companies and individuals responsible for water pollution. George Fox was ridiculed, and his film “Gasland” was called a fake, but gradually all the data and facts presented by him are proven.
There is a moratorium imposed in Bulgaria, but it cannot make us calm enough, because of the continuous attempts of lobbyists to drop it. It was because of this pressure that I wrote the book. One of our politicians has already promised that when he comes to power, which he had no doubts about, he will start handing out licenses for oil and gas exploration and production, which could benefit the so-called “shale sharks”. Everyone has heard this statement by Boyko Borisov during his visit to the USA in June of this year. Although GERB was one of the parties that helped introduce the moratorium, due to their contacts with the Reform Bloc and especially Borissov’s lack of consistency on a number of other issues, we cannot be sure what position they would take in the future.
My book, describing the dark side of shale gas extraction, has become even more relevant with the protests that have erupted over the decision of the Department of Environment and Water, which reconciles the programs of the American company “Park Place Energy” for the exploration for oil and gas in Dobruja. Our concerns are that in Bulgaria we do not have specialists in the field of unconventional methods for oil and gas extraction. For this reason, we could not be sure how the terms of the contracts are being followed, as the necessary regulations on the process are missing. The problem is that many similar licenses have been given out – Dobrudja is divided into blocks that are given to different companies. Previously, there was talk of shale gas, and after the moratorium was introduced, companies began to cite other, vague methods of extracting oil and gas.
Fracking has been proven harmful in the US. In my book, I describe the latest data on pollution and scientific studies that prove the harm of this method to human health and the environment. There is no phase of fracking that is not harmful. This method pollutes the water and air and is harmful not only with the chemicals that are used. Huge amounts of water are also needed. Currently, the areas where it is applied are affected by an unprecedented drought – the worst drought in California in 100 years. In the USA, radioactive waste is transported from one state to another almost in the same way that bales of garbage were transported during the administration of Boyko Borisov. This radioactive waste is not accepted in certain landfills because of the level of radioactivity and is transported to Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio and other states. There are also those in which there is a moratorium on fracking and as a result of these bans it does not take place, but waste from neighboring states is stored there. In Michigan, it’s already putting America’s Great Lakes at risk of pollution.
We cannot be sure of the positions taken by any political force in Bulgaria, with the exception of a single one. We have already been convinced that the former Minister of Economy Dragomir Stoynev, from BSP, has signed a contract with “Park Place Energy” for exploration in Dobrudja. Now the government of Bliznashki is moving further the procedures under this contract. The reform bloc has always been “in favor” of shale gas production.
In an interview some time ago, the executive director of “Park Place Energy” openly spoke about the extraction of shale gas in Bulgaria. But after the introduction of the moratorium, other terms began to be used – for example, methane extraction from coal, which also at one stage implies the use of fracking and is not harmless to our granary in Dobrudja. And for the aquifer there is a huge danger of pollution.
Large companies usually decide that they should explore in the most fertile areas of a country. The example is with Ukraine, with India, not only in our country.
I have no evidence that anyone pays the defenders on duty at the TV studios of the shale gas in Bulgaria. But it is surprising how with amazing activity they stand behind a technology proven to be harmful to human health. Non-existent methods were also advertised in the media for a new technology – the so-called chimera. Advocates are the same. And it is strange how it happened that most of them were announced by the Dossier Commission as collaborators of the former DS. These are Iliyan Vassilev, alias Sasho, Vasil Baltov, Ivan Hinovski, Vladimir Karolev, Ivo Indjev. All of them cooperated with the DS and suddenly found themselves with interests in the energy sphere. At the protests, we already call them “slates”.
Do we have the strength to deal with the expensive PR of defenders of shale gas and its derivatives? Whatever they call us, lumpen or paid agents of “Gazprom”, we are driven by pure intentions. And we are not at all working against the energy independence of the country, for us this is also a problem that is looking for a solution. But definitely not through the extraction of shale gas or the use of methods harmful to the environment and human health.
Bulgarian society has the potential to preserve its land and the Bulgarian has proven this more than once. I have never lost my faith in our people. We all witnessed the mass protests in 2011-2012 that led to the imposition of the moratorium in Bulgaria. I do not advise politicians to try this reflex of the Bulgarian when he sees his land threatened and comes to its defense.
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Mariana Petrova, activist of the civil movement against shale gas extraction and fracking technology in Bulgaria. Author of the book “Shale gas – the choice is him or us”.
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