German groups campaigning against hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for natural gas handed a petition of 660,000 signatures to Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks seeking to outlaw use of the technology.
“There are no good reasons for fracking but large risks for the environment and people’s health,” Ann-Kathrin Schneider of environmental group BUND said in a statement as the petition was passed to Hendricks in Berlin. Campaigners are seeking changes to the federal mining law.
The government seeks to ban fracking of shale rock and coal beds at depths of less than 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) and in water-protection areas, it said in July. Fracking would be allowed for scientific purposes if the fluids it uses aren’t harmful to water supplies under new rules to be agreed on by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet of ministers in November.
While Hendricks and Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel say the rules will make fracking impossible in the foreseeable future, BUND says they help to enable use of the technique. Companies like Exxon Mobil Corp. that drilled test wells to try emulate a U.S. shale-gas boom have run into public opposition.
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