![]() ![]() ![]() "This is hardly enough to make Germany independent of Russian gas," he said. But for Sascha Boden, only half might be economically viable due to the high drilling infrastructure costs, for example. Shale deposits could cover 20% of current demand, as estimated by German Federal Association of Natural Gas, Petroleum and Geoenergy (BVEG). German shale gas is primarily found in the northwestern states of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia and has the potential to provide 3 to 20 times (between 320 and 2,030 billion cubic meters) the amount of conventional gas, according to the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ). Yet drilling for gas in "conventional" and more accessible sandstone gas seams is permitted under strict regulations in Germany, and currently provides around 5% of supply - even if critics say the extraction method is akin to fracking and was simply labeled conventional to imply "good" fracking is possible. Methane leakage from tens of thousand of wells in the Permian Basin in the US states of Texas and New Mexico, for example, has helped create a " climate bomb " that is nullifying mitigation measures. The process uses vast amounts of water and could contaminate groundwater that is already receding due to persistent drought in Germany.įracking also leaks the greenhouse gas methane - the global heating impacts of which are over 80 times higher than CO2 over a 20-year period, noted Sascha Boden, an energy and climate advisor at NGO, Environmental Action Germany. Here fracking fluid made up of water, sand and chemicals is injected up to 5 kilometers (3 miles) under the earth to break up the bedrock and extract gas. The ban, which was due to be reviewed in 2021 but remains in place, extends to deep-lying "unconventional" shale gas deposits that can only be extracted through hydraulic fracturing. But Europe's largest economy banned shale gas fracking at home in 2017. Germany is already building infrastructure and terminals to facilitate the flow of LNG from the United States that comes primarily from fracked sources, which is the result of an EU-US gas deal struck in March. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Germany loves gas, but fracking is banned Chemicals without safety data sheets could be used to drill under a critical drinking water supply for Maryland in fact, toxicity of one-third of chemicals used by the oil and gas industry in drilling have not been researched, and we do not know their harms.Germany prepares for worst-case energy scenario Unstated is whether data sheets exist for all compounds that will be used to horizontally drill 114 feet below the Potomac River bed. Second, MDE states that material safety data sheets “indicate” that drilling fluids do not include toxic compounds. (TransCanada is the company behind the Keystone pipeline, which recently spilled 210,000 gallons of oil in South Dakota.) In fact, so many people wanted to speak, MDE had to schedule a second hearing, set for Monday evening at the Hancock Middle/High School the deadline for written testimony has also been extended, to Jan. At the recent public hearing on this pipeline in Hancock last month, numerous citizens described TransCanada’s poor safety record, recent permit violations and inaccurate representations to regulators about likelihood of safety and public health risks. Columbia Gas Transmission, listed as the applicant, might be a friendlier name for Marylanders, but TransCanada purchased Columbia Gas and is an operator with a very troubling track record. First, the agency never identifies that the owner operator of this transmission line would be TransCanada. ![]()
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