“We don’t need this oil,” says environmentalist MEP Marie Toussaint

This project for eight new oil wells in La Teste-de-Buche was validated, in November 2023, by the investigating commissioner in charge of the public inquiry into it.

“We don’t need this oil”said environmentalist MEP Marie Toussaint on Sunday February 11 on franceinfo, while a demonstration brought together 500 to 600 people in the city center of Bordeaux (Gironde) against the project to drill new oil wells in the basin of Arcachon, in La Teste-de-Buch.

Marie Toussaint, present in Bordeaux for the demonstration, opposes the project of the Canadian group Vermilion Energy to drill eight new oil wells. The group holds until January 1, 2035 a concession operated since the 1960s, in La Teste-de-Buch, near Arcachon. The MEP recalls that these new oil wells are located “in a forest which burned less than a year and a half ago, with 14,000 hectares devastated by the flames”. According to the elected official, “scientists, but also the International Energy Agency” say “that we must no longer open a single oil well”.

“Let’s not take this risk, let’s not open these new oil wells, we don’t need this oil.”

Marie Toussaint, environmentalist MEP

at franceinfo

On November 20, the investigating commissioner in charge of the public inquiry into the drilling projects at La Teste-de-Buch issued a favorable opinion on the project of the Canadian group already present on the site. But for Marie Toussaint, “we need to change the law”. Today, “the law says that when we have explored oil, we must be able to exploit it until 2040”recalls the MEP. “The law changed in 2017, it still needs to evolve.”

The prefect still has to decide on the project

The MEP underlines that the president of the environmental group in the National Assembly, Cyrielle Chatelain, “propose” to stop “to open these new oil and gas wells”. “We also need to attack the financial sector, banks, insurance”, she believes. The head of the environmentalist list in the European elections assures that it is “the project” carried by his party “at the European level” : “We cannot let economic rules, the law of profitability, take precedence over the protection of living things, quite simply because tomorrow, if living things no longer exist, there will be no more yield.”

The Gironde prefecture must now decide before the summer whether or not this project is authorized. Marie Toussaint therefore appeals to the prefect, Etienne Guyot, “not to authorize these wells”. “We must not open these wells”because “the climate emergency is here, it is upon us, it requires us to act”. To this is also added “the question of biodiversity, of this forest which has already burned and which will be polluted by these wells of oil”. According to her, “vs“It’s just a matter of common sense.”

“The prefect must absolutely say no to the project”insists Marie Toussaint.