Colombia's Oil Addiction

Articles in El Tiempo call for more investment in
petroleum production.

Colombia is not often seen as a petroleum state like its neighbors Ecuador and Venezuela. Yet, until oil prices tanked, Colombia earned more than half of its foreign exchange income from petroleum exports. And oil provided a big chunk of government royalties - money that Colombia is desperate for to pay the costs of the peace deal to be voted on Nov. 2.

However, oil has brought big environmental costs, and produced relatively few jobs.

Now that petroleum's price dive has demonstrated the danger of relying on commodity exports, Colombia's response is simple: Double down on oil.

EcoPetrol's headquarters building in
Bogotá. The company's mascot
is an iguana.

El Tiempo has run a series of stories emphasizing the need to boost oil production with subsidies and tax breaks, neglecting to mention that these subsidies also benefit some of the nation's wealthiest men and corporations.

Nor is the newspaper or the government bothered by the contradiction between their dire warnings about the effects of oil-driven climate change and promises that Colombia will do its part, and the nation's oily ambitions.

I read recently that Colombia has only 7 years of petroleum reserves at the rate that it's pumping them out. Undoubtedly, they can extend those with more prospecting, but in the end it's probably a losing race.

There's also a vicious cycle (another type of tragedy of the commons) involved in the race to pump

An electric tax. Bogotá has exactly 43 of them on the streets,
according to El Tiempo.
(Photo: Ministry of the Environment)

more oil, which many other producers are also engaged in. The more oil producers pump to compensate for low prices, the lower prices will drop, making production gains valueless.

Colombia should instead direct subsidies toward manufacturing, which employs lots of people and is more sustainable in the long run. (And would produce employment for ex-guerrillas who may not want to become poor farmers.) It should also make real efforts to shift toward more efficient and oil-free energy in transportation and industry.


By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Protesting Bullfighting...As Always

Scenes from today's anti-bullfighting march, to which a group of anti-frackers united themselves.

Mayor Petro, a bullfighting opponent, had wanted to include a referendum on bullfighting in the upcoming Oct. 25 municipal elections, but a judge nixed the idea. The mayor appealed, so perhaps the protesters are still hoping against hope that the referendum goes forward.

As always, I'd like to ask the bullfighting protesters why they focus solely on this, which affects only a few dozen animals, but ignore the much more widespread cockfighting, not to mention factory farming, which mistreats innumerable animals (and probably people's health) every single day.

Mayor Petro, who's term is almost over, has not allowed bullfighting here since 2012. The Santa Maria is now closed for renovation.

The Colombian government has enthusiastically embraced fracking, altho it may not be economically viable here.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Colombia Fracked?

U.K. activists protest against fracking.
(Photo: Popular Resistance)

Colombia will proceed with the controversial petroleum and natural gas production method called hydraulic fracturing or fracking.

There are lots of worries about fracking, including consumption of water, triggering of earthquakes and possible pollution of groundwater. But Colombia seems determined to ignore those concerns in its eagerness to pump up its fossil fuel production. And the announcement about fracking comes at a particularly sensitive time, as several regions of Colombia suffer a severe drought. A single fracked well consumes millions of U.S. gallons of water, which is forever lost to the water cycle.

But, like so many things, fracking's biggest harms come from very obvious causes which aren't hidden.

Fracking will deepen Colombia's dependence on raw material exports, which have produced economic growth, but few jobs and lots of environmental damage. Fracking will also make Colombia an even bigger contributor to global warming.

And the announcement comes just in time for the annual March Against Climate Change, to be held Sept. 21 in Bogotá in the Parque Nacional.

Sadly, like so many decisions here, I heard of no public hearings or other opportunities for public input on this one. Most likely, in the best style of Dick Cheney, they consulted only with the hydrocarbon producers.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Protesting Against a Pipeline

Protesting on the front steps of EcoPetrol.

As the Santos administration charges ahead with its plans to make Colombia a big exporter of oil, coal and other natural resources, more than a few rural communities and natural wonders are getting trampled on.

For the most part, I suspect, we never hear from those victims.

But today a group of people from Puente Nacional in Santander Department showed up on the doorstep of EcoPetrol to protest against the construction of a new pipeline and pumping station would cause what they consider to be a sort of ecocide.

Countryside near Puente Nacional,
Santander Dept.
(Photo: PuenteNacional.com)

According to the protesters, the construction of the 8-kilometer-long pipeline will mean cutting down some 3,000 trees along a path 33 meters wide. The pipeline's track will damage 14 streams, as well as wetlands, the critics say.

While this is a small environmental attack, I suspect that it's being repeated in similar ways across Colombia and the rest of the continent.

But few of the human victims - and none of the trees - have the resources and sophistication to protest on Facebook and on the front steps of Ecopetrol.

An anti-oil drilling mural
on Calle 26 in Bogotá.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours