The Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE) rejects the possibility of oil exploration and exploitation in the country, after revealing that the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) endorsed the collection of signatures for that purpose.
According to Irene Cañas, the entity’s executive president, Costa Rica remembers its commitment to fight climate change, stated at COP21; therefore, this possibility would be opposite to the Paris Summit.
Justifying an oil exploitation in a country with no certainty of the presence of resources does not make sense, [particularly] when it was globally decided that we are going to decarbonize economies. Therefore, proposing that no fuel be explored or exploited in the country is what makes sense according to the commitments made,”
explained Cañas.
In contrast, Cañas endorsed the bill proposal by Paola Vega to ban the importation of vehicles that use fossil fuels after 2030, since she believes it would go hand in hand with these commitments.
With the resolution issued by the Court, a period of nine months is given to obtain 166 thousand signatures contained in the electoral roll.
The initiative “Law of Use of National Energy Resources” was presented in 2016 by the researcher of the Technological Institute of Costa Rica (TEC), Carlos Roldán; who also proposed technical and scientific research for the export of electricity by the ICE as well as the creation of a ministry responsible for sustainability and quality of the exploitation of these fuels.