A COALITION of 27 environmental groups has called on the Government to “put a stop to all fracking activity” in Ireland because its “known impacts are so serious”.
In a new policy document on hydraulic fracturing of shale gas – commonly known as “fracking” – the Environmental Pillar of Social Partnership referred to the “proposed industrialisation and degradation of our environment across at least nine counties”.
Michael Ewing, co-ordinator of the Environmental Pillar, said the environment and long-term development of rural Ireland was “at risk from the secrecy surrounding the polluting processes involved – the damage done to communities, water supplies and wildlife”.
Instead, the Government and EU should “focus their attention on increasing energy efficiency and accelerating the move to renewable energy rather than allowing the development of high-risk, inefficient and polluting gas extraction processes that just add to the problem of climate change”.
In its policy document the pillar says there was no scientific agreement that unconventional gas extraction would have significantly lower total greenhouse gas emissions compared to other conventional fossil fuels, and its development “will be at the expense of cheaper and safer policies”.
It warns that fracking “could cause the contamination of surface and ground water (including drinking water) with toxic chemicals used in fracking fluids and increasing the concentration in such water of methane and hazardous and radioactive materials that naturally occur in shale and coal”.
OMG. What a bunch of babbling BS.
First off, the US has proven that natgas DOES lower the CO2 output when replacing coal. Secondly, we’ve got all these studies and reports coming in from all over demonstrating that fracking has NOTHING to do with methane in the drinking water and that surface contamination from these wells is no greater than from tradtitional wells (i.e., not much).
Just another desperate move by the dirt worshippers to keep humanity from progressing.
The cost to use natural gas will “necessarily” skyrocket when we go strictly natural gas as the US does not have the gas pipelines to carry the gas to the power plants. The gas pipelines that exist are at maximum capacity already. Add to that cost the cost of fighting the environmental warriors over fracking and you no longer have an inexpensive energy choice.
Kcampbell:
Perhaps you missed the recent drop in natural gas prices due to increased supply. Those of us who live in state where natural gas provides much of the states revenue did not. Cuts were made across the board. Companies are gearing up for the change and there is more than enough natural gas to bloat the market again and again. Getting the natural gas to the power plants is just a cost of changing power sources.
The Irish are in interesting bunch. They apparently prefer 400 foot spinning towers of death to short drilling rigs and pipelines. Maybe that white color of the turbines explains it. White is pure and good, isn’t it? How could something white hurt anything and a countryside littered with these monsters is just sooooo beautiful.
The Irish (my own ancestors included) have never let veracity get in the way of telling a good ripping yarn.
its “known impacts are so serious”.
Yes, fracking is well known to make Greens heads explode. Correlation coefficient is >0.9.
We can build more pipe lines. There is lots of money to be made in transporting gas to market.