The deputies prohibit in the committee of the exploration and exploitation of shale gas – Europe1

mps have banned the exploration and exploitation of unconventional oil, gas and oil shale, during the examination on Tuesday evening in the commission of a proposal for a law PS reforming the mining code, welcomes Wednesday, the group PS in a press release.

risks related to the operation in question. The deputies have adopted an amendment of the rapporteur and chairman of the Commission on sustainable development, Jean-Paul Chanteguet (PS), to complete the arrangements put in place by the law of July 2011 which was limited to ban a technique, that of hydraulic fracturing. “It is a question of defining precisely and without ambiguity what is permitted and what is prohibited in France,” according to the presentation of the amendment by Jean-Paul Chanteguet.

Is defined as unconventional oil “liquid or gaseous hydrocarbons, which are trapped in the bedrock, with the exception of gaseous hydrocarbons contained in the coal seams”, and “methane hydrates buried in the seas, or beneath the permafrost (permanently frozen ground)”. The ban, requested by the environmental associations, is justified “by the risk posed because of the techniques used, the exploration and exploitation of unconventional oil on the preservation of health and the environment,” argued the president of the Commission.

The amendment does not prohibit the exploration for or the exploitation of the gas content in the coal seams, as in Lorraine, “in the sense that its extraction does not require the use of hydraulic fracturing,” said this representative of the Indre.

Modernizing the mining code. It has also been adopted by a party of the right, even if she voted against the bill in its entirety. The proposed law aims to modernize the mining code to take into account the constitutional principles of the Charter of the environment (prevention, information and public participation, etc.) and “responds to the legitimate concerns” about including the environmental impacts of mining in Guyana or the management of the after-mine, according to the group PS.

The text will be debated in the chamber in the first reading from the January 24, prior to its consideration by the Senate. But the interruption of parliamentary work at the end of February due to the elections makes it unlikely its final adoption during this term. “It seems to me quite difficult,” said Jean-Paul Chanteguet.