Accusations fly against German shale gas assessment

Poles feel that the regulations suggested by the Germans for the EU would make the extraction and so-called ‘fracking’ of shale gas unprofitable.

It is estimated that Poland is sitting on 5.3 trillion cubic metres of shale gas, which if extracted successfully could greatly lesson its reliance on Russian gas and oil.

Boguslaw Sonik, a Polish MEP from Civic Platform, has called the survey “biased”, citing that the work “could not be reliable as it was ordered from only one member state.”

Sonik professed that for economic reasons, the Germans are specifically interested in seeing that shale gas is not extracted in Poland, and therefore the findings “should automatically arouse suspicion as being an assessment made to order.”

MEP Lena Kolarska-Bobinska, also from Civic Platform, shared Sonik’s reservations, suggesting that lobbying was rife in a bid to uphold the current energy status quo in Europe.

“Extraction of shale gas will change the whole geopolitics of Europe,” said Kolarska-Bobinska in an interview with Polish Radio.

“Shale gas is needed to wean Europe off gas supplies from Russia,” she argued, noting that lobbying is “immense” surrounding the issue.

Although the German assessment will ultimately count as just one of several on the subject, it was enough to irk Polish MEPs.

Talking to Polish Radio, MEP Andrzej Grzyb from the Polish Peasants Party expounded his theory of the best way forward for Poland.

“We should say to the sceptics that Polish legislation will guarantee a modern approach to the extraction of shale gas, providing continuous monitoring of the environmental impact at every stage of the project,” Grzyb maintains. (nh/jb)