A Critical View on Unconventional Gas Drilling in the US: the "Gasland" Documentary Could Open the Debate on Shale Gas in Europe

Following the excellent post by Michael Hoexter on his Blog GreenThoughts, it is worth discussing the GASLAND documentary released in the United States in 2010 relating to the environmental damages of natural gas drilling in the onland territory of the United States. The documentary sets the lights on a particular method of drilling by stimulation called "hydraulic fracturing." This method, also termed "fracing", creates fractures in the rock for the extraction of oil and natural gas. Hydraulic fracturing has been known since the 1940s, but the method of horizontal fracturing at high-volume is more recent.

The documentary - After receiving a leasing proposal from a natural gas company in 2008, the author of this documentary, Josh Fox, decided to get more information by hilmself, touring the US states where hydraulic fracturing is already occuring. This resulted in the production of a "grand public" documentary. (Click on the picture to play the trailer.)


The documentary underlines the effects on humand health and the environment of hydraulic fracturing, especially in terms of air and water pollution including drinking waters pollution in aquifers. The effects that he observed and that citizens alleged are currently discussed by scientists, without a clear consensus for the moment.

Drilling by hydraulic fracturing would not require more authorisations that the ones required for the current drilling operations. However, Josh Fox argues that, because of the polluting effects on water, a proposal for an exemption under the Safe Drinking Water Act was discussed in order to allow for hydraulic drilling and that such exemption was passed under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which needs to be checked.

How accurate is this documentary? This needs further investigation, in particular related to the regulatory regime of onland drilling and the applicable environmental legislation. Counter-arguments have been summarised on the website EnergyInDepth that is available HERE. The legal exemptions gained in favour of hydraulic drilling are there discussed and denied.

The issue is also of high relevance for Europe, where shale gas potential is under scrutiny, in particular in Eastern Europe and Russia, but also in Western European States. The reserves for shale gas would there be enormous. European Union (EU) Member States have for the moment followed a national approach on the topic, without further concertation. The US has already gained twenty years of experience with the technology that could make it a direct technology supplier to Europe. Another technology race. Russia seems also to have high expetations there. The position of European states and the EU does not seem to be settled, although access to these unconventional gas resources sounds very tempting.

One can wonder what will be at the end the price to pay to quite oil dependency. Without being naive on the components of the energy-mix in the near-future, we nevertheless need some "green thoughts" on shale gas future.