Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) wants to have gas production by means of fracking also examined in this country with an open result – but he is now getting an objection from his own cabinet. “Bavaria has banned fracking for good reason. I’m sticking to that,” said Environment Minister Thorsten Faithr (free voters) on Friday. In principle, Glauber emphasized: “Fracking is the wrong way.”
In fracking, a liquid is pressed into the ground under high pressure in order to make the rock more permeable and to be able to extract gas or oil. However, critics warn of environmentally harmful emissions and a possible threat to groundwater. For example, the US state of California wants to ban fracking from 2024.
“The protection of groundwater and drinking water must always have priority,” said Glauber. You should not take any risks for the water and the environment. “Bavaria’s water future must not be endangered.” In any case, fracking is the wrong way. A regional energy transition without natural gas and oil is necessary. “Instead of risking the last remaining fossil fuels from the earth, we should concentrate on expanding all renewable energies,” said Glauber. “Renewable energies are freedom energies. The future of energy supply is renewable.”
Söder, on the other hand, had advocated examining gas production using fracking in Germany. “It’s about becoming independent of Russian fossil fuels,” he argued. It’s about “draw all options, put all cards on the table and throw ideology overboard”. You just have to think: “What do we have, what can we use?” This includes allowing nuclear energy to continue running, but it also includes investigating possible potential in fracking. It’s about “potential analyses, implementation periods and efficiency analyses”. However, Söder had also emphasized that it was also quite possible that one would ultimately come to the conclusion that fracking did not make sense in this country, or that it would not make sense in terms of the timeframe.
SPD party and parliamentary group leader Florian von Brunn said: “This is Mr. Söder’s next about-face. Even his own environment minister is against it because it is known to be dangerous.” Brunn asked Söder to be specific: “If this is not a new PR stunt from him, Mr. Söder must now say where he wants to do it in Bavaria.”