Polish Minister on EU Commissioned Report: “Misleading”
Polish government warns, that it is going to intervene in Brussels against a new report on environmental impact of shale gas in Europe.
Treasury Minister criticized the report, claiming that no special EU environmental regulations on shale gas were needed. Mikolaj Budzanowski, quoted by the Polish media, criticized report as “written from behind an office desk”, and as such "misleading the public"
"My impression is, that this report was prepared in the comfort of air-conditioned office, without taking into account the laws of physics and geology" – Mikolaj Budzanowski said.
The minister assured, that efficient and thoroughly tested insulation systems were protecting aquifiers in all of the wells in Poland. "There's no risk in this area" - Budzanowski is quoted as saying by the Polish media.
At the end of the last week, the European Commission released three studies on unconventional fossil fuels, in particular shale gas. One of the studies look at the potential risk of shale gas development, especially hydraulic fracturing, for human health and the natural environment.
The study, commissioned from the EU Joint Research Centre and environmental consultancy AEA, measures among others: risks of water contamination and water resource depletion, air emissions noise emission, land take, disturbance to biodiversity and impact on traffic. It establishes, that majority of those risks are high when cumulated in the course of the whole preparation, exploration, production and post-production process.
Basing mainly on experiences recorded in the North America, the study also identifies tens of questions relating to legislation and regulation of unconventional sources development.
Commenting on the report, the spokesman for the Environment of the European Commission said, that the extraction of shale gas can be more harmful to the environment than conventional mining. Joe Hennon added, that proposals would be discussed in October and then consultations with member states and concession holders would be held in order to ensure, that an appropriate framework to enable sustainable extraction is in place.
Consumer rights group Food & Water Europe has already called on the Environment Commissioner Potočnik to ban hydraulic fracturing or - in the face of the expected lack of unanimity of all member states - at least to "demand the highest environmental standards of fracking operations to avoid that EU Member States treat environmental and human health impacts differently".
New requirements are widely expected to increase shale gas production costs. Coordinator of the report and AEA analyst Mark Broomfield agrees, that “recommendations would have a range of costs associated with them for both the regulated industry and the regulatory authorities”.
The level of this costs raise will depend on how stringent new regulations would be. "At this stage, I don't think we can say whether these costs would be significant" - Natural Gas Europe was informed by Mark Broomfield.
In the opinion of Izabela Albrycht, the head of the Polish think tank Instytut Kosciuszki - fracking does not need any dedicated legislation in the EU.
Recently published report of the Institute states, that "Most of the relevant EU regulations use flexible mechanisms and therefore would not need particular amendments in order to be duly adjusted to unconventional gas production."
Speaking to Natural Gas Europe, Izabela Albrycht adds, "AEA Technology originates from nuclear branch, and in the latest months, according to the British press, it suffered serious financial problems and oscillated on the edge of bankruptcy".
Some of the Polish media suggest, that the report may be pursuing interests of companies exporting gas to Europe, notably Russian Gazprom. The report brought out by the company for the Sakhalin Energy in 2007 is reminded in this context.
“It is likely that any consultancy business capable of delivering this study would have worked for the oil and gas industry at some time” – Mark Broomfield comments – “This expertise within both the industry and regulator sectors was an important component of delivering this project”.