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Gas Fracking
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Group Calls for Fracking Ban in Europe
EcoWatch, 9 September 2012Food & Water Europe
Commission studies, released last Friday, find the risks associated with large-scale shale gas development and fracking to be high and in some cases very high. The studies draw special attention to the cumulative environmental impacts of multiple shale gas wells. Eight key pieces of the European Union (EU) environmental acquis are identified as being ill-equipped to deal with the water, waste, liability, air quality and other issues of large-scale use of hydraulic fracturing.
The findings in these studies roundly debunk European Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger’s view that current EU law adequately deals with the risks of fracking. Given the manifold risks identified in this report, Food & Water Europe calls on the Environment Commissioner Potočnik to ban fracking or—at the very least—address these shortcomings by adapting the EU’s environmental regulatory framework to the ugly reality of large-scale shale gas extraction.
“These studies reviewed a lot of the evidence about the negative environmental impacts of large-scale shale gas extraction and acknowledge the water, air and land-related risks associated with shale gas to be high,” said Wenonah Hauter. “We particularly welcome the studies’ focus on the cumulative environmental impacts of hundreds of wells in Europe’s shale plays.”
This focus is particularly valued, as the draft report about the environmental impacts of shale gas, drafted by MEP Boguslaw Sonik, does not even mention this key fact: Shale gas development requires a lot of wells to be drilled. For example, a mature shale play like the Barnett shale in Texas has 15,000 wells. In other words, unconventional gas is profoundly different from previous European experiences with onshore, conventional gas exploitation.
In sharp contrast to Commissioner Oettinger’s earlier claim that existing European environmental regulation for shale gas activities would be adequate, the report clearly identifies gaps in eight cornerstones of the EU’s environmental acquis, such as the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive, Water Framework Directive, Environmental Liability Directive, Industrial Emissions Directive, Mining Waste Directive, etc. For example, the DG Environment study (pp. 108-109) finds that the Groundwater Directive, particularly Article 6 requiring Member States to develop measures to prevent or limit inputs of pollutants into groundwater, “could in principle involve the prevention of hydraulic fracturing operations, should the latter involve the injection underground of pollutants”. Given this obligation, Member States open themselves to major liabilities in case of environmental damage linked to less than adequate regulation of this risky industry.
Major gaps were also identified in the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive. “The upcoming review of the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive during the fall of 2012 must include fracking in its list of activities, which require a mandatory impact assessment,” said Hauter. Impact assessments are crucial, as they help to establish sound baseline data about e.g. groundwater and air quality, identify seismic risks and help secure a meaningful involvement of local communities before drilling commences.
To avoid a situation, as occurred in the U.S., where policy-makers are engaged in a regulatory catch-up exercise with the shale gas industry, European Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik must now start leading the EU’s effort to—in the absence of unanimous support among EU Member States for a ban on fracking—demand the highest environmental standards of fracking operations to avoid that EU Member States treat environmental and human health impacts differently.0 -
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Protest in Carrick-on Shannon on Saturday @ 1pm.
I'll be there anyway...
=> Global Frackdown Day - 22 September 2012
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nedzer2011 wrote: »I could be completely in the wrong here..... but could someone please explain how the Bhopal disaster is relevant to this discussion? Trying to convince poeple that the risks are comparable?
Yep I went to it. No one was saying it was directly comparable. However there are lessons to be learnt from what can be be described as the disaster of Bhopal. I think that was what Afri intended to draw on when approached the antifracking movement on this talk.
Really the link is human rights/environmental rights and corporate responsibility. The surivivors have learnt that the company cared more about its profits rather than the people it impacted on with the leak. Up to 10,000 people died from the initial leak but the companies practices had been poor between the time it came in and hadnt been monitored, ie since the 1960's up to the disaster of 1984. Land and water supplies was been polluted by the company then and the residue is still there. There was mimimal compensation to the people by the company in 1984. The government too were complicit in not taking care of its people and putting company interest before citiizens interest . There was no compensation for the environemenal harm it caused including polluting the water supply and land, and none for the people its impacting on now. People are still being effected physically, either genetically through birth defects or chronic ill health though the polluted water supply that has not been properly cleaned up. Issues that came up were also the non disclosure by the company of its activities and its risks- the people living beside the plant belived it to be producing pesticide. (similar problems about non disclosure are apparent with fracking etc etc)
So broad brush strokes from above, the importance of vigilance, governement accountaibilty, corporate responsibility etc. And fundamentally the importance of people to show solidarity and get out of their chairs and do something and desist from fault finding those who are active cos thats too easy. (And it'l be too late if that tendency persists)
One of the survivors who was there and suffers chronic ill health daily said. "the lucky ones were the ones that died that night" How bad it must be for those who have not felt listened to, have felt powerless to the interests of those with money and political power. Plenty of lessons there alright.
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