Posted by Editora Bogotá | Aug 10, 2022 | Environmental, Featured | translation thefreeonline
The euphoria continues in Colombia after the victory of the left for the first time ever (although without a majority), pushed and inspired by the extensive and diverse popular movement of last year’s uprising and national strike.
There will be a fierce struggle to develop a social revolution, between the people and the oligarchy. One front that is already underway is the ban on fracking and against the entry of extractive ‘vulture’-type corporations. ….
Environmental organizations and 70 congressmen filed a bill to ban fracking in Colombia.
The initiative has the support of the national government and several social and environmental organizations such as the Alianza Colombia Libre de Fracking.
The 70 congressmen from different parties, environmental organizations and social organizations filed a bill in the Colombian congress that seeks to definitively prohibit the exploitation of unconventional deposits and the fracking technique in the country.
Gas fracking in the US continues to expand and the country is already the largest producer of LNG in the world (2022), selling to the European market at exorbitant prices due to the war in Ukraine.
It also orders the formulation of a “Fair Energy Transition Policy”, as indicated in the statement of the Alianza Colombia Libre de Fracking.
Although it is the fourth time that this bill against Fracking has been filed in Congress, they hope to succeed, since they have a renewed Congress, in which a significant number of congressmen oppose this practice of oil exploitation. In addition, they have the support of the national government of Gustavo Petro.
As explained by the Alianza Colombia Libre de Fracking, the project “is a proposal consistent with the demands of citizens to remove the dangers of the exploitation of unconventional deposits and fracking.”
The Alliance also pointed out that this initiative “guarantees, at the same time, the continuity of conventional oil and gas exploitation, which is necessary for a just energy transition.”
In the same way, he assures that “the project not only manages to shield the territories from the known dangers associated with fracking, but also those that could materialize with the exploitation of bituminous sands, which have the potential to affect delicate ecosystems of the eastern mountain range and The plains”.
As explained by those who propose this new law; “The initiative also seeks to stop the fracking pilot projects promoted by the previous government in Puerto Wilches, Santander, which went over the opposition expressed massively by the inhabitants, and which put the water, health and biodiversity of Magdalena at risk. Medium.”
Added to the rejection of fracking is the violence and persecution against environmental leaders, victims of threats, intimidation and murder for denouncing the risks of this practice.
During the press conference offered by the proponents and congressmen of the bill, they remembered the social leaders Teófilo Acuña and Jorge Alberto Tafur, assassinated in the department of César, on February 22 of this year.
The authors of the bill said that their proposal aims to “direct the country away from dependence on fossil fuels and in favor of a productive economy that enhances life as an essential axis of transformation.”
The Free 