The French government is looking to ban imports of shale gas from the United States to back a nationwide prohibition on fracking.
“I’m going to examine legally how we can prohibit the import of shale gas, and in any case, these businesses will have to shift towards other markets to import only conventional gas,” France’s energy minister, Segolene Royal, told an assembly of the country’s lawmakers Tuesday.
Royal said she would contact two companies, French utilities EDF and Engie, to explain why they are not accounting for the origins of their natural gas. About 40 percent of the companies’ gas imports were produced from shale in the United States.
“I have asked the two companies why they weren’t vigilant, and I have also asked for an examination of a legal means for us to ban the import of shale gas,” Royal said in response to questions from lawmakers.
The country has banned hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, while the United States’ use of the drilling technique has resulted in an enormous bounty of cheap natural gas that it does not refuse to buy. Environmentalists are pressuring the French government to ban the use of fracked gas over concerns about the environmental harm it causes abroad in the United States. They say it is hypocritical to ban fracking in France, while purchasing gas produced from fracking abroad.
The minister’s remarks come after a joint communique between the U.S. and European Union signed last week in Washington praised U.S. exports of oil and natural gas as a great stabilizer for European energy markets.
