Borloo bids to ban hunt for shale gas
Former minister who signed gaz de schist exploration permits now tries to get them repealed
FORMER ecology minister Jean-Louis Borloo is trying to ban the exploration and development of shale gas just 11 months after signing the permit allowing it to take place.
The U-turn has come as he said that there was no legal way he could have refused the three exploration applications to research massive gaz de schiste resources with the potential to supply 30 years’ worth of energy.
Ecology Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet has already halted exploration efforts with a moratorium until the middle of June for further inquiry. There has been massive opposition to the plans from politicians ranging from the Green Party to her own UMP party and the Front National.
Ms Kosciusko-Morizet told MPs there would be no shale gas development using the “hydraulic fracturing” or “fracking” processes developed in the US that were thought to have disastrous environmental consequences.
Both socialist and UMP groups at the National Assembly have already proposed laws to ban the exploration and development of shale gas in France.
Mr Borloo’s law proposes the repeal of permits already granted and to impose the need for an impact assessment of such applications. He said he wanted to give the same protection to the ground and underground as already exists for water and air.
Shale gas is found in tight rock formations and was massively difficult to develop until US oil firms such as Halliburton started using explosive charges to crack open the layers and allow the gas to be more mobile. A mixture of water, sand and up to 200 chemicals is then forced into the cracks to get the gas to the surface.
However, the toxic chemicals can leach into the water supplies and the US protest film Gasland showed that gas could also leach into tapwater... with a demonstration of a man actually lighting water as it came out of the tap.
There are thought to be shale gas reservoirs running from the Pas-de-Calais down to the Ile-de-France, and across the south of France from the Dordogne to Savoie, taking in the Tarn-et-Garonne, Tarn, Lot, Aveyron, Hérault, Cantal, Lozère, Gard, Ardèche, Drôme and Vaucluse.
For further information:
Dordogne Advertiser – Communities unite in protests on shale gas
English-language protest blog – Schiste Happens
Anti-shale gas film Gasland
US oil company Halliburton – Maximizing reservoir value
