October 19th protest in Pungesti. Photo credit: Bogdan Cristel, Reuters.
Romanians in the tiny farming village of Barlad have been protesting the promises of "progress" since early this summer, when the Romanian government announced and agreement with Chevron to mine shale gas from the ground. Initially, Prime Minister Victor Ponta's centre-left coalition publicly deplored the previous government's decision to grant shale gas concessions. Ponta even went so far as to put a moratorium on drilling. But the moratorium expired in December 2012. Since then, the PM and President Traian Basescu emerged overnight as some of Europe's most devout worshippers of hydraulic fracking.
Here's what stands out. In one of the EU's poorest countries, respect for the environment is not a view held by the elite and impressed upon the voting public. Instead, the arrows go from the grassroots upward. Sustainable development is a position embraced by many villagers, peasants, and Romanian middle-class residents who remember the environmental degradations of communism and who live close enough to the land to value it more than the paper money they know is subject to the vagaries of politics and economic development.
Vasile Laiu standing outside European Parliament with a "No hydraulic fracking in Romania" sign.
From the grassroots, Orthodox priest Vasile Laiu has become the inadvertent spokesperson for an environmental movement rooted in traditional respect for local economies and the natural world. In response to pressure for economic development, Laiu offers a larger conception of life which encompasses not only consumer life (pace US of A) but also the life of all living creatures in a given locality.
"I cannot remain indifferent when the environment is concerned," Laiu told the press. "Life is more valuable than any money they offer us," he continued. There is an accidental dose of irony in the fact that Laiu represents the will of Romanian villagers and farmers for their land's future just as the rest of the world struggles to get back on the sort of sustainable development track preferred by Laiu and like-minded Romanians.
Clad in his black habit, Father Vasile Laiu, an Orthodox priest from the nearby city of Barlad and one of the most outspoken local opponents of fracking, asked people to kneel, then led them in prayer.
Up to 50 villagers that have been taking turns staging a round-the-clock vigil, blocking access to the lot, said they were preparing for a long haul. They have pitched tents and dug a lavatory pit.
"Can we live without water?" one of them asked the crowd on a microphone. The air carried faint smells of incense.
"No," the demonstrators replied.
"Can we live without Chevron?"
"Yes."
To its discredit, Chevron refers to studies by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Ground Water Protection Council in order to buttress its claims of environmental safety. The fact that the EPA hasn't "confirmed" a "direct link between hydraulic fracturing operations and groundwater contamination" fails to address a host of other environmental issues, including sinkholes, changes in soil quality, and damage to existing ecosystems.
Chevron promises "direct benefits", including "jobs and payments to contractors and suppliers and, during the production phase, taxes and royalties". DAFORA is the Romanian company expected to receive significant economic benefits from the drilling. But these taxes and royalties will not offset the cost of the environmental degradation. Taking a long view, local Romanians prefer a "progress" that is sustainable, like a vegetable processing plant, abattoir or wind energy park.
The local protests have put a damper on Chevron's plans to begin drilling. Last month, Chevron officials even went so far as to remove their equipment from the vicinity. Tom Holst, the CEO of Chevron Romania, announced that his company would being working when "safety standards were met". Putting on his best poker face, Holst said, "Our work requires a good relationship with the local population because the work is likely to extend over a period of thirty years". He knew better than to mention concerns about damage to company equipment, since nothing makes for worse PR than oil executives whining about possible vandalism by Orthodox priests.
February protests in Barlad. Photo credit: Nita Prastie.
While pulling strings to make a home for Chevron deep within Romanian soil, President Basescu is getting tangled in his own trip-wires. The problem stems from Basescu's relationship with corporations- a relationship that undercuts his legitimacy as leader of a democracy. The Middle East (and the state of Alabama) is full of similar stories in which a politican does everything to woo development and ends up losing any semblance of integrity.
Rather than lose his deal with Chevron, Basescu seems to concede that his hands are rather soiled. Riding dirty, however, teaches the modern statesman to develop a tactical proficiency in the art of screaming "Fire!" and running the other way. Better to dissemble and distract- to conjure a boogeyman of fantastic proportions- than to let anyone look through your pockets. When Basescu saw the lights coming for him, he immediately issued statements to the press blaming Russia for the anti-fracking protests.
During an interview on Romanian television on the same day that Chevron removed its equipment from Pungesti, President Basescu, looking rather cheeky, accused Russia of conspiratorial "manipulations" in keeping Chevron out of Romania. In Basescu's view, Gazprom is the hand behind the curtains trying to keep Romania from becoming an energy exporter, thereby decreasing dependence on Russian oil and gas. In case you missed out on the Cold War, Basescu threw in a little reminder- the kind that sends chills up the spines of elderly Romanians- "Russia is not a lamb," Basescu bleated, "It is a great power".
One can only hope that fear of Russia is not motivating the recent pro-fracking diplomacy of Barlad's elected officials. Mayor Constantin Constantinescu envisions fracking as a global trend that has gone viral. He wants to jump on the fracking bandwagon because "Britain and Poland are looking to exploit shale gas", and the mayor just cannot believe that officials in Britain and France "would do something bad for the people". His assumption lies at the heart of most pro-"development" positions which assume that money and jobs in the short-term benefit this abstract group known as "the people".
But what if money and jobs in the short-term don't benefit local citizens who will be forced to deal with the consequences and repercussions of environmental damage in the coming decades? What if local property values decrease as argiculture and farming suffer from diminished soil quality and the negative reputation associated with being grown in Barlad?
The popular daily newspaper, Evenimentul Ziliei, jumped in line with Basescu's red-colored glasses and drew connections between protestors and Russian spies. Defending his fellow anti-frackers, geologist Gabriel Sava insisted that science and love for the land motivated his views.
"We are not with the Russians, we are not Russian spies.... We are patriots, that is the truth. Maybe some people don't even know how to write this word anymore, but that is what we are."
As a geologist for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Sava finds it difficult to ignore the relationship between climate change and excessive reliance on fossil fuels. To be forthcoming, I find it impossible to believe that the US missile defense agreement is unrelated to the agreement to let Chevron play pimp to the newly-prostituted Romanian land. Someone with the right security clearance could easily create a timeline that might draw interesting connections between the passage of the State Department's agreement to frack away in foreign lands and the US negotiations on missile defense in southern Romania.
The anti-fracking fight in Romania brings the all-American Wendell Berry to mind; his insights are buried close to the surface of village communities fighting to preserve a reverent relationship with the land around them. I have a feeling Mr. Berry might be impressed by the courage and wisdom of Romanians fighting hard to preserve the natural world they know full well can never be replaced or recreated.
"Priest fights to stop fracking", iAfrica Business, 7 June 2013
Cristian Pantazi, "Exclusiv interview video", Hotnews.ro, 5 November 2013
Dimiter Kenarov, "A fracking wild party", Balkan Insight, 12 June 2013
Isabelle Wesselingh, "Father Laiu fights to save rural Romania from fracking," AFP, 6 June 2013
Luiza Ilie, "Romanian farmers choose subsistence over shale gas", Reuters, 27 October 2013
Marcel Barbatei, "Exploatările gazelor din şist, adevărate bombe chimice, mai periculoase decât cianurile de la Roşia Montană!", Cotidianul, 26 March 2012
Mirel Bran, "In Romania, peasant revolt against shale gas", 29 October 2013
Vlad Ursulean, "Shale gas revolution risks cutting Romania a bad deal", 17 October 2013
Vlad Ursulean, "Biserica protestatara din Barlad,", Tanaru journalist ratacitor, 7 April 2013
