Guardian: “There are no scientific or technical grounds to ban fracking in Europe but it will not be a “silver bullet” to improve energy security or cut emissions, European science academies have said.”
“Measures such as replacing potentially harmful additives and disclosing the chemicals used in the fracking process to the authorities had greatly reduced the environmental impact of the process, they said.
And EU regulations and conventional gas extraction already provide a framework for minimising the impacts of fracking on health, safety and the environment, the European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC) said.
But in a statement it warned that while shale gas “may have significant global potential, it is no simple ‘silver bullet’ to address energy security and climate change”.
The scale of shale resources and whether they can be extracted commercially in different EU states remained uncertain, the academies said.
And claims that shale exploitation can help cut emissions, which are based on using the gas to replace coal-fired power stations or for use in transport, depend on avoiding methane emissions escaping throughout drilling, extraction and after wells are closed.
The academies also said community and environmental concerns arose over raw materials, such as water, and local impacts. They said the water used in fracking should be recycled and steps taken to ensure wells are protected to prevent groundwater contamination.”
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