Fracking Business (as Usual)

This report clearly outlines the problems with the European Commission’s soft-touch approach to the incipient fracking industry in Europe.

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Fracking is an extreme method of oil and gas extraction that involves pumping millions of litres of toxic fluid deep underground to fracture rocks and release oil and natural gas. The process can’t be done safely.

Research shows that fracking:

– pollutes the air we breathe
– makes our drinking water toxic
– worsens climate change, and
– makes people sick.

The environment and the health of citizens are not being protected by the EU guidelines on how member states carry out shale gas exploration and production finds Food & Water Europe and Friends of the Earth Europe.

Jointly developed by Friends of the Earth Europe and Food & Water Europe, this report says the European Commission’s Recommendations lack the ability to force member states to even make minimal changes to their shale gas regulations. They also rely too heavily on self-monitoring by the oil and gas industry to control the worst impacts of fracking.

As a result, the report says member states are exploiting the weaknesses of the Recommendations and are failing to take adequate precautionary steps against the potential risks of shale gas, including publishing the chemicals used, safely disposing of fracking waste water, and liability for abandoned oil and gas wells.

Fracking companies make exorbitant profits at the expense of local communities, which may be left without safe water. The solution is to ban fracking everywhere and implement an immediate halt to all unconventional fossil fuel projects in the EU.

Find out more in the report, ‘Fracking business (as usual)’.