Will there soon be fracking in Germany? “No”, says “star“-Knowledge editor Alexandra Kraft. What we don’t want from ourselves, we get from somewhere else – at a high price.
Fracking is a technology that uses high pressure and dangerous chemicals to force liquefied gas out of the ground. And since 2017, so-called “hydraulic fracking” has been completely banned in Germany, “even if we could make ourselves energy independent for two decades,” says editor Alexandra Kraft in the 440th episode, “important today.”
The fracking ban: a political decision
“It is a political decision that this is forbidden,” says Alexandra Kraft. Not everyone likes that – because only recently, Finance Minister Christian Lindner argued with the results of an expert commission that fracking is “responsible”, the arguments against fracking are outdated. He’s not entirely wrong, says the “stern” editor in the podcast: “The technology has stayed the same, but how it’s done has gotten better.”
There used to be earthquakes around the fracking sites, for example, that’s better under control today. Nevertheless, the technology is still not harmless. “You don’t know for sure what’s going on with the groundwater,” says Alexandra Kraft. Methane leaks in the pipelines could hardly be ruled out either. And “methane is one of the worst environmental toxins we have”. And even with the long-term studies, it’s still “something like that,” says the knowledge editor. But she is certain that there would be stricter controls in Germany for all of this if the worst came to the worst. “But we’re giving up control,” she says.
The import of LPG: “We exploit other countries”
Instead, Germany imports liquid gas from other countries, from the USA for example, and possibly soon from Qatar as well. “We exploit other countries. We are not willing to frack here, but we are very willing to do it in other people’s front yards.” Especially since the so-called “green gas” has to be cooled down for transport to Europe, which is energy-intensive.
Fracking in the USA: “The Americans are much more unscrupulous”
During her research in Texas, Alexandra Kraft saw with her own eyes how fracking works elsewhere. “The Americans are much more unscrupulous. They find a gas field and then they start drilling,” she says in an interview with “Today Important” host Michel Abdollahi. The conditions in the States are different, the groundwater and the pipelines are only laxly controlled: “The stuff is brutally pumped out of the ground there, including in the front yard of a kindergarten,” reports the editor of her research. The residents who are affected are often on the poverty line and do not have the chance to fight back. Fracking brings jobs in the United States, “but people are also afraid,” says Alexandra Kraft. And Germany simply outsources the problem: “We are unscrupulous. We want to maintain our luxury, are willing to promote fracking, but not here with us – that’s a lie.”
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Source: Stern
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