Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Sham Moratorium?

COMMENT:
This South African region, the Karoo, has a proactive citizen group who is fighting to stop Royal Dutch Shell from drilling natural gas wells in their water sensitive and historically agricultural land.

Note in the article below, the non environmental and citizen representation on the task team that looks into the impacts of hydraulic fracturing in the Karoo.

Does this senario look familiar in your community?



Gareth Morgan (DA's Shadow Minister of the Environment) tells us that the task team set up by the government to investigate the possibility of fracking includes officials from the Departments of Mineral Resources, Trade and Industry, and Science and Technology, but not from the Departments of Environmental Affairs and Water (DEAW), nor from the National Planning Commission (NPC).

He has written to the Minister of Mineral Resources expressing concern that there are no members from the broader environmental sector on the task team, and to enquire exactly what the task team hopes to achieve in the limited study time - the task team will apparently report to the Minster at the end of July!...continued...