{SPAIN}Supreme Court rules in favor of oil prospecting off Canary Islands

http://elpais.com/elpais/2014/06/24/inenglish/1403618076_094849.html

Oil prospecting may be conducted in the Canary Islands after all. The Supreme Court has rejected seven appeals filed by island authorities, green groups and leftist parties against a 2012 decree authorizing hydrocarbon exploration in the waters off the archipelago.

The project has been clearing hurdles since 2001, when a royal decree granted the oil giant Repsol exploration rights for six years. The Supreme Court canceled the license, however, because it lacked the necessary environmental permissions.

In 2012, the conservative government of the Popular Party decided that Repsol had resolved any existing deficiencies and it issued the exploration license again in a new decree. But the regional government of the Canaries, the local councils of the islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, the green groups WWF and Ecologistas en Acción-Ben Magec, the cultural center César Manrique Foundation and the United Left coalition all filed appeals against the decision.