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Formentera asks Spectrum to halt petroleum exploration

Today, officials in the presidential cabinet office of the Formentera Council sent off a letter addressed to Spain-based representatives of Spectrum, a corporation behind a project calling for acoustic surveys of an area that stretches from northern Catalonia to the Balearic Islands. In the letter, administration president Jaume Ferrer declares that, “in view of the clear and emphatic rejection of such projects by all branches of local Balearic society” and “considering the environmental impact [of said projects]”, Formentera calls for Spectrum to “halt plans for 2D seismic activity in the open areas of the north Mediterranean and Balearic Seas”.

Rejection of Cairn Energy plan
In the missive, Ferrer explains the active role  the CiF played in the movement to stop Cairn Energy's plans for acoustic surveys in the Gulf of Valencia. “During that time,” the letter reads, “one-hundred twenty-eight thousand objections to the project were collected from the area residents, local administrations, instiutions and associations that make up the social fabric of the Balearics” and continues by presaging: “We believe Spectrum's project would come up against the same opposition”.

Corporate accountability
In view of clear opposition at the grassroots, corporate and local government levels to petroleum exploration plans, and in view of the harm such activity stands to cause to both the local environment, with its delicate marine wildlife, and economy, which relies heavily on tourism and fishing, the Formentera Council hereby casts a vote of confidence in the Spectrum company's ability to act responsably and cease its pursuance of any plans for petroleum exploration.