Bloomberg: France Should Allow Fracking to Gauge Resources, Lawmakers Say

France should allow drillers to use hydraulic fracturing to estimate the size of the nation’s shale oil and gas reserves, lawmakers said in a cross-party report.

Dozens of exploration wells should be drilled, overseen by the state and allowed under provisions for research in a current ban on the technique, according to the parliamentary commission.

Fracking involves pumping water, sand and chemicals underground to free trapped gas or oil. It is opposed by those concerned that water supplies may be contaminated.

“This can be carried out without environmental destruction and the use of toxic substances,” Socialist Deputy Christian Bataille, one of the authors, told reporters today. “We can’t just keep shutting the door. That would be obscurantism.”  MORE