Posted on 07/05/2014 6:26:52 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
BERLIN—Germany plans to halt shale-gas drilling for the next seven years over concerns that exploration techniques could pollute groundwater.
"There won't be [shale-gas] fracking in Germany for the foreseeable future," Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks said Friday.
The planned regulations come amid a political standoff with Russia, Germany's main natural gas supplier, and following intensive lobbying from environmentalists and brewers concerned about possible drinking-water contamination.
The production of shale gas requires the application of the hydraulic fracturing technology known as fracking, which involves using a high-pressure mixture of water, sand and chemicals to break apart rocks to release the gas. The government plans to ban the use of hydraulic fracturing technology for drilling operations shallower than 3,000 meters (1.9 miles) and hopes to get a bill ready early next year.
The government will reassess the ban in 2021.
"Protecting drinking water and health has the highest value for us," Ms. Hendricks said.
Fracking technology has been used since the 1960s in Germany, allowing the industry to maximize the output of conventional gas fields. Although there is currently an oversupply of natural gas in Europe, prices in Germany are much higher than in the U.S. where fracking is used extensively.
But Germans are suspicious of fracking, fearing that it could pollute drinking water. Shale-gas carrying rock formations tend to be closer to the surface, and therefore closer to groundwater deposits.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Good! They can buy it from us at usurious prices!
I guess being slaves to Russia’s GAZPROM is preferable.
Or Russia or OPEC - serves those liberal right.
They must like Russian D—k!
Alternate title: “Germany publicly fellates Putin.”
I can’t believe the Europeans. Russia has them by the shorts and they still don’t get it. Screw them.
Maybe if you include Russia.
I can't see it happening under the western European enviro-weenies.
Simple explanation - environmentalism is a heretical religion, more important than prosperity.
That will make the Germans cool.
But it’ll bite ‘em like Dieter’s monkey.
Hitler and Goering were environmentalists....must be part of the German psyche.
Let them freeze their Hiney environwacko asses off!.
>> “Protecting drinking water and health has the highest value for us,” Ms. Hendricks said.
Oh, shut up.
I can only conclude that the Christian Democrats are being willfully blind. They have been intimidated by the Greens into governing against their country's best interests.
>>Shale-gas carrying rock formations tend to be closer to the surface, and therefore closer to groundwater deposits<<
I wasn’t aware that Groundwater is Pumped from Wells that are deeper than 5000 Feet, amazing. /s
Dumb bunnies.
They’re all in ‘til the ice storms and ice sheets return.. Just glow baby glow!!
So, did Gerhard Schröder have his fingers in this decision?
No nukes: no gas.
Germany will soon be 100% coal... or dark.
Maybe they envy the look of North Korea in those nighttime Korean Peninsula satellite photos.
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