Shale gas, Strasbourg asks for environmental tests for every new project

Parliament calls for amendments to the directive on assessment of impact, making it mandatory for all “fracking” projects. They also proposed measures to combat conflict of interest and involve the public

Before starting new projects to extract shale gas, it will always be necessary to carefully evaluate the impact on the environment. This is what the European Parliament asked in the plenary session which approved the proposal to modify the current directive of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).

The text from the rapporteur Aldo Zanoni, Alliance of Liberal Democrats (Alde), approved with 332 votes in favor, 311 against and 14 in abstention, asks that not only mining activity but also those related to exploring for non-conventional hydrocarbons (like shale gas, oil, coal gas) be included among those for which the EIA is mandatory. A substantial modification to the current legislation, which requires only natural gas extraction projects of at least 500,000 cubic meters a day: a volume which often is not reached for shale gas.

Regarding shale gas there are high hopes but also serious fears. On one hand there are those who view it as a possible source of independent energy for Europe. In the United States their extraction lowered gas prices, noticeably increasing the reserves available and causing a reduction in the use of coal. On the other hand there are concerns about the environment because the technique to extract shale gas is very invasive. To extract the gas from rocky, clay-like formations, fluid, sand and chemical agents are injected at high pressure in order to fracture the shale rocks to release the natural gas inside (this is the so-called fracking technique ). There are plenty of risks: the foremost is the possibility of contaminating water sources (a hypothesis that has already been verified in the USA) but also of gas leaks, earthquakes and dispersion chemical products.

For this reason the European Parliament asks for more stringent regulations to begin projects of this nature. The EIA directive (which involves 200 types of projects – among which the construction of bridges, ports, highways, landfills) was created in other areas 28 years ago, while this type of extraction technique is decisively more recent. There were also other substantial modifications in the text approved by Parliament like the one related to conflict of interest. The proposal contains measures to combat this, introducing the requirement to take advantage of competent, objective and independent experts. They also reinforced the public’s participation: the MEP’s ask to be informed and consulted for projects that affect them closely. The session also gave the rapporteur the mandate to negotiate with the Council.

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