Canada Free Press: Germany’s Angst Over Hydraulic Fracturing and Emissions Reduction Targets

Although the Germans can now call themselves World Cup champions, they may be headed for a losing energy proposition. Last week, Germany’s energy and environment ministers announced that they were considering a ban on shale oil and gas drilling. Barbara Hendricks, minister for the environment, went so far as to say that these would be the “strictest regulations [Germany has] ever set” and that “there will be no fracking for economic purposes in Germany in the near future.”

The dilemma Germany has created for itself is that the country has set ambitious carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reduction targets—40 percent reductions of 1990 levels by 2020 and 55 percent by 2030. Shale gas development could help with the emissions reduction since its production and displacement of coal in the generating sector has reduced emissions in the United States.[3]

Although IER has frequently questioned the wisdom of setting emissions reduction targets[4], if Germany does insist on meeting its own CO2 goals, banning hydraulic fracturing would close the country off to a source of relatively low-emission energy and make meeting its stated targets more difficult.
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