The death of the Beaver costs us dearly
The frenzy of current events makes it almost impossible to hear the whispers of other events that should also matter to us. How to read in the Information from Jordi Mumbrú in this newspaperThe work to seal and complete the dismantling of the Castor underwater gas storage facility is in its third and final phase. It will be the epitaph, sealed in concrete, of a demented story in which Escal UGS, a subsidiary of ACS, owned by Florentino Pérez, committed a large-scale environmental crime and was rewarded with €1.35 billion from public funds, according to a Supreme Court ruling. This crime was initiated by Zapatero's last government and continued by Rajoy's first.
Reviewing the history of the Castor project is a long and enlightening process, and we encourage interested readers to consult the extensive archives available. In short, the project involved building an underwater natural gas storage facility, 1,700 meters deep, off the coast of Castellón, with a capacity of 1.9 billion cubic meters of gas. It was also to include an offshore platform, a 30-kilometer-long pipeline, and an onshore plant located in Vinaròs. As they say, what could possibly go wrong?
As everyone remembers, the initial gas extraction operations triggered seismic activity, which—along with the project's profitability challenges—led to its suspension, although Florentino, as we've mentioned, didn't leave empty-handed. What followed was a lengthy legal and administrative saga, and finally, the dismantling of the infrastructure, which is now entering its final stages.
One of the most interesting aspects of the Castor project is its relationship with the so-called fracking or hydraulic fracturing, a technique consisting of massive injections of water and sand with chemical additives at great depths, with the aim of drilling through the rock and extracting gas. The Castor was not strictly fracking (it consisted of injecting gas into a depleted oil field), but it was similar in its significant ecological impact, and generated a passionate debate around the aforementioned fracking, with positions both for and against.
Generally, positions against fracking They were attributed to a certain environmental extremism, while the opinions in favor were presented as mature, balanced, and attentive to the public interest. Today, the harm caused by fracking They are recognized everywhere, and their practice is prohibited, with varying degrees of prohibition, in a large number of countries (including Spain), while their defense has fallen into the hands of the most recalcitrant climate change deniers, the likes of Trump, Milei, and company. Those who defended, tooth and nail, the fracking Facing the Castellón coast, they seem to have abandoned their activism. Now they defend the clear need to expand our airports (Barcelona and Palma) to accommodate even more millions of tourists. low cost Every year. They do it for the common good.