Shale gas ban bid gets official aid

PLANS to drill for shale gas reserves may be doomed as the government has speeded up the process of a draft bill to ban drilling due to fears over long-lasting dangers to water sources.

The proposal, from leading UMP MP Christian Jacob, would repeal the existing exploration permits and ban the exploration and exploitation of shale gas resources in the south of France and shale oil reserves east of Paris.

His draft bill has been given an accelerated hearing and will now be examined at the National Assembly on May 10. Energy companies will argue that exploration should go ahead to check if the theoretical reserves exist.

Mr Jacob said shale gas exploration was a topic “where the principle of precaution should apply” and added it was good that the government was acting with some urgency.

Environmental pressure group France Nature Environnement saluted a victory for citizen power and thanked the government for listening to widespread fears on the process. It is still going ahead with a nationwide day of protest this Sunday.

Permits for gas exploration were awarded in last spring by former ecology minister Jean-Louis Borloo and then last month postponed by his successor, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, who has said she has “great reservations” about the so-called non-conventional drilling procedures used to recover shale gas reserves.

Shale gas and shale oil is contained in densely compacted rock layers and has been an untapped energy resource for many years because it is extremely difficult to extract. Forecasts suggest there could be theoretical resources under France, possibly even decades’ worth of gas reserves.

US companies started using an unconventional technique known as “hydraulic fracturing” or “fracking” to crack open the rock and then use high-pressure water loaded with chemicals and sand to allow the gas to flow to the surface.

However, drilling in the US led to complaints of toxic polluted groundwater and aquifers and even in some cases to gas in tapwater, as shown in the Oscar-nominated film Gasland by Josh Fox where the tapwater is ignited with a match.

Other opponents point to the city of Pittsburgh in America where shale gas drilling is feared to have affected the city’s water supplies and made them too saline for consumption.

The boss of energy giant Total, Christophe de Margerie, has denounced the campaign against shale gas exploration as “outrageous” adding: “How can we take a definite decision without even knowing if there are reserves of shale gas underground. We’re putting the cart before the horse.”

One English-language protest site Say No to Shale Gas has pointed out that the economic benefits of gas reserves could mean that President Sarkozy – who has a veto on any ban – would be inclined to allow exploration to see if the gas existed.

For further information:
Say No to Shale Gas – Proposed law to be discussed
English-language protest blog – Schiste Happens
Anti-shale gas film Gasland
US oil company Halliburton – Maximizing reservoir value

Photo: Ruhrfish