Fracking, a universal issue, Republican Herald, May 2011

Fracking a universal issue
Published: May 29, 2011

http://republicanherald.com/news/fracking-a-universal-issue-1.1152847

As I write at my desk on May 10, the French National Assembly sits in an emergency session to vote on a bill that will determine the future of shale oil drilling in France. Outside the parliament building, Palais Bourbon, on the Left Bank of the Seine and across the river from Place de la Concorde, protesters have been gathering since early morning, many having travelled all night from southern France, where drilling permits have already been issued to gas and oil companies.

Among the protesters, the "stars" of France's environmental protection movement stand out: Jose Bove, France's most famous paysan or peasant, known for his droopy mustache and his strong stands on all environmental issues; Nicolas Hulot, a television personality whose programs on nature conservation have earned him nationwide fame, and Eva Joly, a former judge and a presidential hopeful vying for the top spot on the Green Party ticket in the 2012 elections. They are surrounded and supported by the members of more than 100 anti-shale gas collectifs, associations of concerned citizens from every region of France, highly mobilized and highly vocal in their criticism of high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing, better known to Pennsylvanians as fracking.

Those outside the parliament building are calling for a total ban on such drilling; those inside know things are not quite so simple.

On April 13, Prime Minister Francois Fillon promised to revoke all fracking permits in what seemed a clear victory for anti-drilling forces. However, since that time, a Catch-22 situation has come to light. Many drilling permits have already been granted by the Minister of the Environment, and they are what the French call silent permits. In other words, they grant permission to drill but specify neither the nature of the drilling nor the methods that can legally be used. Revoking such permits would require the French state to pay large indemnities to the holders, and one gas company already has its legal team working on the constitutionality of such a move.

Article 1 of the bill up for vote does indeed propose to ban fracking and limit drilling for shale gas to only those methods which protect the environment and do not endanger water supplies. As of this date, no such method exists, but gas companies have two months after the date the bill is voted into law to propose other methods, such as vertical boring.

In such cases, their permits will not be revoked. In fact, nothing forbids them from exploring for oil in anticipation of safer drilling methods. The giant French oil company Total is poised to begin drilling in southern France, near Montelimar, a city located a few miles from a nuclear power plant on the Rhone River. If drilling begins, local residents have vowed to use their bodies to stop trucks from getting through to drilling sites.

By now regular readers of my column know the French are passionate protesters and they love nothing better than a good demonstration. The anti-shale gas movement, however, has spread to corners of France where political activism most often takes the form of participation and cooperation with local government. Regarding shale gas drilling, many usually staid French citizens are up in arms simply because no one ever asked them their opinion. They learned about the drilling permits only after the Ministry of the Environment had handed them out, and some of the areas concerned are among the most picturesque of all of France, including large chunks of what Americans know as Provence.

Civic uproar has also been fuelled by ample coverage in the French media of the situation in the United States, and based on my own estimates, I'd say never before has the state of Pennsylvania been so talked about in France. Unfortunately, it is being held up as a prime example of what can happen when fracking goes wrong. In the week following the Bradford County fracking spill in April, major French dailies, such as Le Figaro, news magazines, such as l'Express, reported the accident. Countless blogs of the anti-shale gas movement took the time to inform their readers of the dangers of wastewater from fracking, a mixture of corrosive salts and known carcinogens.

Thanks to the commitment of anti-shale gas activists, the French also have access to the excellent in-depth reporting on fracking in the series "Drilling Down" by New York Times reporter Ian Urbina, which appeared between February and April and can be found at http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/us/series/drilling_down/index.html. All the articles have been translated into French and are available online. Reading about the current situation in Pennsylvania and western states such as Colorado and Texas, the French come away with a very scary picture of what the future could hold if fracking became widespread in France, a country covering an area equivalent to that of the state of Texas, but whose population is nearly three times as great (65 million as opposed to 23 million).

Much of what the French are learning based on reports from the United States, Pennsylvanians already know: that the dangers of fracking to environment and health are greater than previously understood, that their drinking water is threatened by the millions of gallons of wastewater every single shale gas well produces and that sewage treatment plants are rarely equipped to remove dangerous drilling wastes from water, seeping dangerous carcinogens and radioactive material into rivers, as is already the case with the Susquehanna.

As for those who are pro-shale gas, in the USA or in France, they argue for energy independence, vaunt the low carbon footprint of shale gas when compared to coal (debatable when drilling and production methods are taken into account) and remind consumers of the ever-present threat of war and acts of terror and their potential impact on the energy supply. Shale gas, however, constitutes at best a short-term solution - 15 years is one estimate for the life of Pennsylvania's shale gas reserves, a drop in the energy bucket when compared to the destruction excavation is wreaking on the state.

In the early hours of May 11, the bill against shale gas drilling passed the French Parliament. It will move on to the Senate in early June. Good news? Not exactly, because the silent permits are still out there, and the bill includes a loophole that will allow shale gas exploration to begin.

Yet, the anti-shale gas movement has politicians running scared. Parliamentary elections are scheduled for June 2012, one month after France's next presidential election. Those who don't want to lose their job are ready to listen to constituents crying out, "No shale gas drilling in our backyard." Gov. Corbett and Pennsylvania lawmakers should take note. The drilling companies may make the biggest campaign contributions; it is Pennsylvania's citizens who vote.

(Honicker can be reached at honicker.republicanherald@gmail.com)