Hydraulic fracking is a controversial technique enabling the extraction of oil and natural gas from rock formations deep below the earth’s surface, and made front page UK news in December, when that nation’s government approved its use.
In the case of gas, it involves drilling thousands of meters into the ground, and blasting water and chemicals (fracturing fluids) into rock to extract reserves embedded in shale deposits.
DBB calls for fracking moratorium
Association of German Brewers (Die Deutschen Brauer or DBB) Spokesman Marc-Oliver Huhnholz, told BeverageDaily.com this morning: “We want to have a moratorium, while the scientists to take another look at this technology, and prove that it is not dangerous for the groundwater (for everybody) and especially not for our brewing wells.
The basis for the DDB’s opposition to fracking, Huhnholz said, was a 400-page report from Germany’s Umweltbundesamt (Federal Environment Agency), which he said raised “many question marks over fracking”.
“This is one very critical study, which says that the scientists have to search for more evidence that fracking will not damage our groundwater or the wells of the brewers,” Huhnholz added.
“More than 50% of the German brewers have their own wells, and as long as the scientists do not say that problems do not stem from fracking or fracking technology, then we oppose this law.”
Given the global rise of interest in fracking – due to ever-scarcer mineral resources – Huhnholz agreed that the issue had implications for brewers globally, not just in Germany.
German environment minister, Peter Altmaier said in an interview last Wednesday that fracking was “not yet a technology that we can use in Germany”, and stressed the need for local decisions to be made on its legality.
German Greens urge total ban
The German Green Party wants a total ban on fracking – Christian Democratic Union chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet agreed on draft legislation in mid-May to outlaw it in some areas – while the main opposition party, the Social Democrats have called for a temporary ban.
And Huhnholz said that publicity surrounding the DBB’s fears – which led head Peter Hahn to write to Altmaier and five other government ministers last Tuesday stressing its concerns about fracking – had attracted press enquiries from the US, Canada and Russia.
“We ask the politicians to think once again to think about their actual law, and if they can change something in there, and introduce a moratorium for now,” he said.
Calling on Germany’s government to debate the issue further before legislating, Hahn states that legal changes planned to date are insufficient to guarantee the security of drinking water supplies or account sufficiently for the requirements of Germany’s 1516 beer purity law, or Reinheitsgebot.
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