The end of January will see the beginning of a ‘referendum trend’ in Romanian towns and villages rich in shale gas, but mainly opposed to the exploitation of the unconventional resource close to their homes due to environmental concerns.
The process of extracting gas from the porous shale rock, called hydraulic fracturing or ‘fracking’, involves pumping vast amounts of water mixed with sand and chemicals underground to force the trapped gas out from the rock and into the well.
Though the technique has been used in the United States for over half a century, the environmental risks associated with fracking have furrowed many brows in Europe: the governments of France, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands have all suspended national shale gas exploration activities.
Romania, which is thought to have 51 trillion cubic feet of unproved technically recoverable shale gas resources - enough to fuel its energy needs for about 100 years -, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), lifted its moratorium on shale gas exploration last March.
Environmental risks
On the other hand, locals from villages with exploration potential have not lifted their own ‘ban’ and have been protesting against fracking ever since, not least because for many, the environmental risks associated with shale gas are a direct threat to their way of living: these villages rely on subsistence farming, which makes the quality of their water and soil crucial.
Their fears are strengthened by existing cases of environmental damage caused by fracking.
Even though most of these Romanian villages and communes are remote, international news have reached their homes: they found out about the now famous American documentary ‘Gasland’, released in 2010, which shows flames shooting out of people’s water taps because of methane leaks.
Cases of contaminated drinking water wells close to fracking sites in Pennsylvania, US, have not helped shale gas development in Romania either.
Conventional vs unconventional
One of the first communes that was expected to organize a referendum this month in Romania is Sânmartin, a commune of under 10,000 inhabitants, comprising six villages, one of which is Baile Felix, a famous thermal spa resort.
The mayor of a neighbouring small commune, Sântandrei, also announced last December that he would follow that example and “consider” organising a referendum himself.
The referendums are expected to continue throughout 2014, with one set to take place on 9 February in the Puieşti commune of the shale-gas-rich Vaslui county, where US energy giant Chevron has acquired exploration rights.
“It is normal for the population to be consulted on such a problem which is of major importance for the community. We will see what the citizens decide,” the mayor of Puieşti commune, Costel Moraru, cited by Ziare.com, told a meeting of local councillors on 31 December, 2013.
But local attempts to gather the public’s opinions on shale gas exploration have already hit a wall of opposition.
The chief of Bihor county, Claudiu Pop, called the referendum in Sânmartin “illegal”.
“Such a referendum would exceed the powers of the local council,” Pop told reporters of the national news agency Mediafax.
He argued that, under national laws, underground resources are the property of the state and a matter of national and not of local interest.
“Pop put the village on trial against this planned poll,” a Sânmartin town hall spokesman told Equal Times. “This legal action has suspended our right to organise the referendum.”
Sânmartin hopes it will win in court. Last year, fifteen communes went to court against central government authorities regarding their decision to ban fracking on their territory and three of them, Șuletea, Pogana and Alexandru Vlahuță were successful.
The argument that won them the case – and which set a legal precedent - was the fact that the current wording in the Romanian law regarding national resources refers only to conventional energy sources - whilst shale gas is an unconventional resource, which opens the ground to interpretation.
Battling against an energy giant
Another commune awaiting a decision from the central government on it request to ban fracking is the already well-known Pungeşti in North-Eastern Romania, where hundreds of demonstrators have been sweeping the streets since October 2013, when US oil and gas company Chevron was granted exploration permits.
Chevron has attempted to drill in Pungeşti twice last year – once in October and once in December - but has had to suspend its activities each time due to protests.
Locals in Pungeşti have also asked for a referendum on the exploitation of their shale gas resources and have gathered signatures in this sense from 1,000 citizens – roughly a third of the population.
However, a spokesman of the Pungeşti town hall told Equal Times: “After finding some false signatures, the local police have opened an investigation with the aim to find out the real number of people requesting a referendum on shale gas.”
EU hesitations
On 22 January, 2014 the European Commission published a set of non-binding shale gas exploration recommendations meant to address the environmental concerns and transparency issues regarding the unconventional practice.
They call on member states to prepare a “strategic environmental assessment”, and to keep the public informed of fracking activities.
The Commission says that the implementation of its recommendations could “alleviate public concern and possibly opposition to shale gas.”
It also indicated that if countries’ efforts are unsatisfactory, the EU could in the future initiate a binding legislative proposal to regulate the exploration of shale gas.
But environmental groups are disgruntled.
They call the text “weak”, accuse the commission of bowing down to energy lobby groups, and regret that the EU refuses to strongly regulate shale gas exploration, leaving the final decision to each member state.
"Shale gas regulations have been fracked to pieces by corporations and fossil fuel-fixated governments. Insufficient and non-binding recommendations and monitoring mean fracking will go ahead improperly regulated and local communities will be the ones who suffer. Europe is putting the fox in charge of the hen house," wrote Antoine Simon, of Friends of the Earth, in a statement.
A new gold rush?
Striking the right balance between exploring its vast shale gas potential and engaging in an open, honest dialogue with its people will be one of the main challenges for Romania this year, not least because Romanians’ trust in their government is low: the Eastern European country ranks as the third most corrupt country in the EU after Greece and Bulgaria, according to Transparency International’s 2013 corruption index.
Another issue is that the Romanian public has had little incentive to embrace shale gas.
Romania already enjoys some of the lowest gas prices in the EU. The price of natural gas for households in Romania is only €0.029 per kWh (US$ 0.04)- four times cheaper than in Sweden for example.
This situation is very different compared to the United Kingdom, where the government recently ruled that local councils which allow shale gas development can keep 100 per cent of the business rates they collect from shale gas sites – double the current 50 per cent figure.
This commitment could be worth up to £1.7 million a year (US$ 2.8 million) for a typical site, the UK government said in a press release.
This could also be a tactic for Romania. But the government might probably need more than just one tool to convince its people to jump on the shale gas bandwagon.
Whilst Romania has high hopes of becoming one of the biggest gas producers in the EU, it faces one of its greatest challenges yet: winning the trust of its own people.
