UK - Independent fracking report asserts that benefits are outstripped by the risks

We do seriously wonder if any member of the current UK government is even aware of the existence of the report.

Read the report here: http://www.medact.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/medact_fracking-report_WEB3.pdf

French lobby group claim they are not lobbying.

There is not the slightest doubt that when a right-wing administration is eventually returned to the Elysée Palace the battle against shale gas exploitation will re-commence. Even now,the newly formed CHNC ( Centre Hydrocarbures Non Conventionnels ) group is preparing the ground. They claim to be providing factual ( which facts will they leave out? ), accurate (by whose validation? ), and 'sophisticated' scientific arguments in support of hydraulic fracturation 'en France'. The group chairman/director Jean-Louis Schilanski says that the group aims to be 'objective' in its reporting ( M.Schilanski is the former CEO of the French Union of Petroleum Industries or UFIP ). It would seem that messrs Total, Arkema and Technip are at the heart of this excercise although we understand that certain environmental groups are to be involved.

No comment. Ed.


"The costs are a thousand times worse than the benefits," said Benoit Hartmann, spokesman for France Nature Environment, an umbrella organization of environmental groups. "In Texas, you do digging, and it's culturally accepted. But here it's not like this. People say, 'It's our land; it's our richness.''

Read an article here from the Los Angeles Times published in June 2014: http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-france-fracking-20140622-story.html#page=1

UK - Now to get a 'Bespoke fracking regulator'. Don't ask.................

Former Environment Secretary Chris Smith is concerned that the public simply do not have confidence in the current regulatory framework for fracking. Not surprising really when one considers that his government have sacked half those employed in that area of expertise. Marry that to the fact that the navel-gazing debates which seem to recur again and again on for instance the BBC, continue to deal with flaming taps, earthquakes and other issues long since settled in the US and it,s hardly surprising is it.

Read more here: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-32041168

Squealing 'Petrolier's or Furious Frackers - Angry with Obama.

After the announcement of a tight regulatory framework ( long overdue ) by the Obama administration our friends in the oil and gas industry have been busy reacting..................

Read more here...................

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-20/u-s-sets-first-fracking-rules-since-process-fueled-energy-boom

Of course, when the cowboys re-occupy the White House again in due course no doubt they will reverse all the President's good work. Just like France? Hopefully, by then the appalling track record of fracking will have grown to such an extent that it will be all but non-viable.Ed.

Fracking - Safe as houses...................?

Fracking is safe, according to David Cameron. What would he know? Tell that to millions of Americans living in close proximity ( 15 million to be exact ) to fracking activity...........http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2014/07/halliburton-ohio-river-spill-fracking

200 Energy companies hold humanity's future in their hands. Please sign petition.

Exceptionally, we provide a link to The Guardian's ambitous Climate Change Project which aims to educate but also encourage disinvestment in fossil fuels.

Read more and please consider signing the petition here: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2015/mar/16/keep-it-in-the-ground-guardian-climate-change-campaign It matters - a lot. Ed.

Things not going at all well in Algeria. Oh dear.

Things not going quite as planned in Algeria it would seem.............................

 

Environmental movement blocks fracking in Algeria’s remote south

An unprecedented environmental protest movement in a remote part of Algeria has disrupted the country’s multibillion-dollar shale programme and is making political waves across the north African nation and the wider region.

Since the start of January, thousands of protesters have turned up daily in the rural town of Ain Salah, in the heart of the Sahara, to take part in increasingly raucous rallies against a $70bn hydraulic fracturing project they say will pollute the groundwater and disturb the environment.