12 Bulgarian Cities Rally Against Shale Gas Development

Business » ENERGY | January 13, 2012, Friday // 14:13
Bulgaria: 12 Bulgarian Cities Rally Against Shale Gas Development Anti-shale gas ralies will be held Saturday in 12 Bulgarian cities. Photo by Sofia Photo Agency

January 14 will see nationwide protests against shale gas development in Bulgaria.

The rallies will be held in 12 cities, including Sofia, Varna, Plovdiv, Burgas, Ruse, Pleven, Veliko Tarnovo, Shumen, Dobrich, Smolyan, Blagoevgrad and Kazanlak, according to an announcement of the Civic Initiative on Banning Shale Gas Exploration and Production in Bulgaria through Hydraulic Fracturing.

The motto of Saturday's protests will be "Prove You're a Bulgarian, Protect Your Land".

Anti-shale gas rallies will also be held in Copenhagen and London.

The protesters insist on a moratorium on shale gas development in Bulgaria.

"We are protesting against the technology, not against Russian or US companies," said Borislav Sandov, representative of the civic organization, during a Friday press conference.

Mariana Hristova, another representative of the entity, reminded that the discussion of legislative proposals submitted by three different parties had yet again been postponed.

She accused the government of neglecting the stance of the civic entity and for failing to honor its commitment to support them on a legislative initiative on the matter.

"There is constant talk of Bulgaria achieving energy independence, but if shale gas production starts, we will be facing a food dependence", Milen Stoyanov said during the press conference.

"We are trampling our own national security, there will be no production, we will have nothing to eat, not to mention export. It is very irresponsible to claim that we will achieve energy independence without considering the fact that we will lose our  food independence," Stoyanov reasoned.

Representatives of the organization expressed confidence that if Bulgarian farmers were informed about the damages incurred by the technology, they would flock to the protest.

Borislav Sandov further reminded that Prime Minister Boyko Borisov had ordered Environment Minister Nona Karadzhova and Energy Minister Traicho Traikov to prepare a report on foreign practices in the sphere during a government session in May.

Despite the two-week deadline, the report was still nowhere to be found, Sandov remarked.

He told journalists that the government had fulfilled its pledge to bring a foreign expert to speak on the matter.

Sandov said that the foreign specialist was a Pole, hinting that he may have been among the seven public officials that were recently arrested in the country  over a corruption scandal involving shale gas licenses.

 "Our aim is not to topple the government, but we cannot stay silent amid such an attitude on the part of the ministers," he exclaimed.

The organization has said it seeks an apology from Karadzhova and Traikov over their immoral attitude to the citizens.

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Tags: shale gas, Environment Minister, Nona Karadzhova, Traicho Traikov

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