The indelible mark

This case, by the way, now seems to have been totally forgotten by a society that has become distorted or doped, and even more so by a person such as our illustrious president, who has lavished praise on this lady on her prize trip to Europe, where she can surely continue to improve economically, socially and even professionally in a path of shameful interests in which the biggest and most cloying medrators and all those who, after a lucky day, grasp at a substantial burning nail that can cover their kidneys for life, triumph. 

It was in 2009 when Ribera, as Secretary of State for Climate Change in José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's last government, signed the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) authorising the controversial underwater gas storage facility off the coasts of Castellón and Tarragona. 

A gesture that became decisive and definitive in order to launch a project valued at no more and no less than 1,350 million euros, which, moreover, ended up being a fiasco and whose final bill, with interest, will end up being paid by the Spanish people out of their own pockets. 

The ‘innovative underground installations’ were carried out a little more than 20 kilometres off the coast of the town of Vinarós, taking advantage of large natural cavities, or forced, as the case may be, in some old oil prospecting projects that had not borne any fruit either. The project was presented as a technological breakthrough and, above all, as an important boost for the area's economy, with forecasts indicating that up to a third of the total demand for natural gas in the whole of Spain could be stored in this deposit for a period of approximately 50 days. 

Behind its execution was a joint venture known as Escal UGS, a company whose shareholders were the ACS Group and Castor Limited Partnership (CLP), joined by Enagás. 

However, the gas injections in the final storage facility were the origin of hundreds of seismic movements on the coast of Castellón and Tarragona during much of 2013; which forced, first, to paralyse the activity for a year and, finally, to close the storage facility, leaving it in a state of hibernation. 

The Escal group ended up renouncing in July 2014 the concession for the storage and supply of this gas and, to do so, this renunciation entailed the payment of a compensation of 1,350 million euros by the State to the UTE. To make the cost effective, the bill is charged for a period of 30 years in the gas bill of millions of Spanish households and companies. 

The aforementioned circumstance is by no means negligible, but for Sánchez it has gone completely unnoticed and unworthy of being mentioned even in passing when he praised it in his farewell to Europe. 

But this is not the end of the former minister's ‘exploits’; she has also been a stubborn supporter and advocate of the almost exclusive use of renewable energies and totally opposed to the production of electricity through nuclear power plants or new generation hydroelectric dams, despite the fact that they are much cheaper, safer and totally independent of fickle weather conditions. This facet is also likely to be soon forgotten and put in the drawer of anecdotal memories, because in Europe the same lady with a different hat will have to defend and promote the opposite. Although it is true that, as the classic saying goes, ‘these are my principles, and if you don't like them, I have others’. 

She is also well known for her defence of the natural flora and fauna of riverbeds during her six years as minister of the sector under Sánchez, even imposing significant fines on all those councils or other bodies that dare to clean the riverbeds that cross their borders or the adjoining meadows to prevent disasters caused by natural catastrophes such as the one that is so hot and present in our memory. 

Speaking of this sad event, his absences and lack of effective action in the disaster area before, during and after the disastrous and tragic event occurred have been pathetic and obvious. 

She has denied everything that is attributed to her and her subordinates and it will only be the slow justice system that can put the guilty in black and white when it comes to reflecting the criminal responsibilities of all those useless civil servants and political appointees who truffle the posts and positions of responsibility in our Spain and its regions without having any qualifications to hold such posts. 

She is going to Brussels, smiling, perhaps because of the substantial pay that awaits him and other more than certain privileges to be added to it, without having deigned to set foot in Valencia or to apologise for his own bad performance and management or that of his subordinates, such as having prohibited the cleaning of the now sadly famous Pollo ravine, both things which, although they would not have prevented the total catastrophe, could have made it easier to reduce his disastrous immediate and future results to a minimum. 

Of course, in view of the facts reflected in this work of analysis and information, Sánchez has not lied and has been absolutely correct in categorically stating that she is leaving a woman who has left ‘AN INDELIBLE FEAR’ on Spain and the Spanish people.