After bill "avoids Wild West-style claim staking"

The draft focuses on the approval of individual wells, but does not cover overall consequences and conflicts of use on the surface (such as impairment of tourism) and underground (such as consequences for geothermal energy), says the scientist from the University of Kassel, who has written the only book to date on legal issues relating to fracking: "In addition to the respective approval of wells in individual cases, to which the draft of the Federal Ministry for the Environment and the Federal Ministry of Economics is limited, these mass effects must also be clarified and regulated." He said an overall plan is needed "that excludes areas for fracking and provides for other areas as suitable in principle. Wild West-style claim staking, as in the U.S., must be avoided at all costs."

On Tuesday, German Environment Minister Peter Altmaier and German Economics Minister Philipp Rösler had presented a joint bill to regulate the highly controversial fracking. This extraction method is used to extract gas by blasting open deep layers of rock with the help of toxic chemicals. The process is already used extensively in the United States.

"The most important experience I took away from a visit to the gas fields in Pennsylvania is the mass phenomenon," said Roßnagel, who heads the Department of Public Law with a focus on environmental and technology law at the University of Kassel. "We can't just look at the individual well, but above all we have to look at the cumulative effects on the surface and deep in the earth." In the U.S., hundreds of drilling sites with their infrastructure of pipelines and pathways blanket rural areas with industrial infrastructure, giving the entire area a different feel, Roßnagel pointed out: "This severely impacts recreation, tourism, landscape protection and nature conservation." He warned, "Underground, large areas in the gas-bearing strata will be crumbled over a wide area and filled - like a sponge - with frack fluid. These mass effects have not yet been adequately studied or satisfactorily regulated." In addition to permitting individual wells, he said, these effects need to be regulated. "This would have to be done after initial investigations into the suitability of possible areas, for example in a regional plan, on the basis of a strategic environmental assessment and democratically legitimized," Roßnagel demanded.

Roßnagel also warned against seeing fracking gas as a solution to climate problems: "Natural gas is cleaner and more climate-friendly than lignite and hard coal. If it were only used to replace these, it would be welcome. However, there is a danger that it could also - see the discussion about energy prices - hinder the expansion of renewable energies. This must be avoided. After all, fracking natural gas in Germany could only cover the demand for gas for about ten years, so ultimately it could only help with the transition, but not solve the climate problem."

Roßnagel, on the other hand, welcomed the fact that the German government's draft had taken up two important demands made by critics: no fracking in water protection areas and no fracking without an environmental impact assessment. "This ensures, first, that drinking and medicinal water supplies are not directly threatened. Secondly, the environmental impact is forecast in detail in every approval procedure and discussed in a public participation process. In this way, the population can receive sufficient information about the threat to their drinking water and can build up political pressure themselves if the risk appears too great," Roßnagel said. He added, "We know a lot about fracking and its effects, but still not enough to be sure where it seems risky and where it seems justifiable. A lot of study and research is needed here, especially on fracking without biocides. But strictly controlled trial fracking should also be possible to answer certain questions that are important for risk assessment."

Book:
Roßnagel/Hentschel/Polzer, Rechtliche Rahmenbedingungen der unkonventionellen Erdgasförderung mittels Fracking, kassel university press, 2012.


Info
Prof Dr. Alexander Roßnagel
University of Kassel
Department of Public Law, esp. Environmental and Technical Law
Tel: +49 561 804-3130
E-Mail: a.rossnagel@uni-kassel.de
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