14 DAY TRIAL // Folks in the United States are known not to hold hydraulic fracturing very close to their hearts. As it turns out, this is also the case in other parts of the world. This past Sunday, anti-fracking protests were organized in about 60 cities in Romania.
Media reports say that, although most of these protests only brought together a couple hundred people, the fact that anti-fracking movements were organized in several dozen urban areas helped raise awareness about the threats associated with hydraulic fracturing.
What's more, it would appear that in the city of Arad some 2,000 protesters came together. Interestingly enough, it is said that these 2,000 people took part in last Sunday's anti-fracking initiative after being encouraged to do so by local political leaders.
Interestingly enough, Romanian folks living not in the country, but in other parts of the world, also organized anti-hydraulic fracturing meeting. Thus, it is said that Romanian protesters living in New York also took a stand against the highly controversial practice.
The Examiner informs that yesterday's demonstrations against hydraulic fracturing were organized as part of Romania's National Day of Protest Against Fracking, and that the company that the protesters targeted was American multinational energy corporation Chevron.
The folks who took part in yesterday's series of demonstrations want the country's high officials to ban energy companies from resorting to hydraulic fracturing to explore and/or exploit unconventional sources such as shale gas.
Besides, they demand that their voices be heard and that the government make sure that decisions concerning shale gas development be transparent, and that exploration or exploitation operations that have until now been illegally approved be canceled without delay.
By the looks of it, the anti-fracking movement in Romania was started by Chevron and its decision to drill an exploration well in the village of Pungesti. The news about this well made headlines in 2013, when dozens gathered to take a stand against the energy company's activities in this part of the country.
Fast forward a few months, and environmentalists in Romania claim to be in possession of evidence indicating that other regions apart from Pungesti have been targeted as well. What they are worried about is that hydraulic fracturing will contaminate both local waters and soils and will, therefore, endanger public health.
“We all go out to the streets, peasants and townspeople, people of different ethnicity's and beliefs, in the country and in the Diaspora, to defend ourselves with land, water and air. Out in the street to say bluntly that we give and we will defend the right to life, health, future,” the folks behind yesterday's protests said in a statement.