Kyiv Post: Anti-shale gas campaign gets new momentum with Svoboda

Ukraine’s feeble attempts to wean itself from natural gas dependency through diversification are now finding enemies in unexpected places, including the oppositional Svoboda Party, which is now a political player on the national stage.

Svoboda received 37 seats in Ukraine’s 450-seat parliament in last year’s election. Despite campaigning mostly on social issues, such as the status of the Ukrainian language, the only parliamentary committee the party sought vigorously was the one dealing with ecological policy, natural resources and ongoing problems stemming from the 1986 Chornobyl power plant explosion.

The person Svoboda got elected as head of the committee is Iryna Sekh, a 42-year-old native of Lviv Oblast, and a fierce campaigner against the extraction of shale gas in her home region, where international giant Chevron plans to work.

Just days before her appointment to the committee, Sekh made a series of statements against the shale gas extraction in Lviv Oblast.

Her opposition is based on environmental concerns and lack of local input in the decision-making process. But shale gas proponents also note that slowing the nation’s progress in this area also serves the interests of Russia’s Gazprom, Ukraine’s main gas supplier.  MORE