To frack or not to frack – Germany puts a (temporary?) end to the fracking debate

After considerable back and forth (reported on earlier here and here ) the German Environment Ministry and the Ministry of Economics have agreed on six key points for the regulation on fracturing. A translation of the points can be found here.

According to the Environmental Ministry, these are the “most stringent rules which have ever been adopted” (see in German here) and a commercial production of shale gas in the foreseeable future will not happen. The protection of human health and drinking water are of upmost priority; the impacts of fracturing are not (yet) certain, own national reference values are still missing. Point four further takes recourse to the principles established by the European Commission and establishes the strictest European operation and management principles so far. With this position, the government follows its careful approach as also included in the coalition agreement. These amendments to the Federal Water…