Repsol wants to convince us with a barrage of advertisements that prospecting in our sea is good for us.
It says that we wouldn't see a ship 30 km from the coast, but between Tenerife and Gran Canaria there are 60 km and I see the lights of Las Palmas every night.
Morocco yes and the Canary Islands no? The question, to be correct, should be Morocco yes and Repsol no? We canaries are not going to extract the oil, but those who pay for these ads.
Canada, Norway and the United Kingdom extract oil and protect the environment. They extract it directly from those countries, not companies like Repsol, at less than 200 m depth. Repsol wants to extract it at 3,000 m depth, where the pressure is fifteen times greater and it is almost impossible to repair a leak.
In Brazil (6,000 km of coastline), the Caribbean and Italy (3,000 km of coastline) the prospecting is not in front of the wonderful beaches because, then, they would cease to be wonderful. As far as I know, tourism does not go to Lake Maracaibo but to Isla Margarita, 600 km from there.
How have the Norwegians managed to multiply their wealth? By being the owners of their resources and not letting the multinationals take them away. Working, training their population and innovating; putting the prospecting points many hundreds of kilometers from the tourist areas and carrying out extractions at less than 200 m depth, where a breakdown can be corrected.
A total of 60 full-color, full-page ads at an average of 1,500 euros each add up to 90,000 euros. Repsol hopes to make a lot of money by putting our sea and our beaches at risk because, otherwise, it would not spend that money to convince us. The neighbors, and the young people who do not want our beaches to be threatened, do not have €90,000 to put up ads and express their opinion.
There will soon be a change in the energy model because investment funds such as UBS and Rockefeller Fund have already said that today it is cheaper to produce energy from renewable sources than from oil and gas. Repsol wants to extract wealth in our sea and take the benefits, but the problems in the environment, the beaches and tourism are for us.
If the prospecting were owned by the citizens of the Canary Islands, it would be a bad decision to carry them out because they threaten tourism, employment and the wealth of our ocean. What you gain on one side you lose on the other. The future will be supported by clean and inexhaustible energies because technology makes it possible today. An investment of 11,600 million euros would allow our archipelago to be self-sufficient from renewable energies. Our economy could face it with the 3,800 million euros that we pay each year in fossil fuels.
Repsol does not need to come to help the economy of the Canary Islands. No, thank you, I am not convinced by its generosity. Let's use the money we already pay for fuel purchases to finance the change towards renewables. Let's use the capabilities of our youth to become an international model of sustainability, innovation and clean energy, taking care of the future climate and leaving the money in our land. The answer to the questions in the ad is: renewables in the Canary Islands yes and Repsol no.
Javier Morales, CC deputy
