Update on Karoo fracking: Geraldine Bennett, Moneyweb correspondent
moneyweb.co.za
excerpt:
ALEC HOGG: Well, that’s the Karoo, and that’s the part of the country that you are looking at, and that potentially could get spoilt.
GERALDINE BENNETT: Absolutely. There’s no question about it. There's an award-winning documentary that’s come out called Gasland – it was Academy-nominated and quite a few farmers in the Beaufort West area came around on Saturday and took a look at it, and they were absolutely mortified. We are talking about once gas is introduced, we are talking about like the water that comes out of your tap. This is hectic stuff.
ALEC HOGG: Geraldine, it is interesting, though, that the community seems to be pulling in a direction of at least asking Shell, if not to cancel, at least to postpone until there is more information.
GERALDINE BENNETT: Well, ja. Even Golder & Associates has recommended that there is a report that’s been undertaken by the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States. The results of that report are only out next year sometime, towards the end of next year sometime, and even Golder has suggested to Shell that they hold fire. If you consider that 116 authorities in the United States have banned fracking – that recently we've seen Quebec ban fracking pending an investigation, and the French prime minister has also extended the moratorium on fracking, and most recently Nova Scotia – there's got to be something wrong with this technology. |
