MEP calls for shale gas regulation

Leinen chairs the European parliament's enivironment, public health and food safety committee

Leinen told the Guardian yesterday that he wanted to see a new “energy quality directive” signed into law that would tighten controls on certain types of energy that are detrimental to the environment.

The parliamentarian’s comments came on the same day that Senators in France passed a definitive text outlawing the hydraulic fracturation process. However the approved text still contains the amendment passed by the Senate on the 9th of July, which leaves the door open for shale gas exploration in France.

Should Leinen, who chairs the European parliament’s environment, public health and food safety committee, garner enough support amongst members of the legislature a directive restricting, or even outlawing shale gas and oil from tar sands could be passed into law in the next few years.

The prospect of an energy directive could be potentially embarrassing for the French government and European Union itself.

In May a spokesperson for the EU energy commission told The Riviera Times that “no evidence exists at present that would allow or require the classification of shale gas as a dangerous substance within the meaning of relevant EU legislation.”

The EU energy commission also refused to be drawn into claims that a higher concentration of methane emissions would be caused by shale gas exploration, labelling the debate as “not relevant for the EU’s overall Greenhouse Gas emissions.” The commission claimed this was because “shale gas will not be produced in Europe on a large scale for some years to come.”

So far the upper echelons of the European Union have remained relatively quite over natural gas exploration, with a potential directive in the pipeline it is about time that they found their voice. 

Tom Donnelly