Spain To Fight Province’s Fracking Ban In Court by Igor Kossov, January 24, 2014, Law360
The government of Spain will challenge the provincial government of Cantabria’s ban on hydraulic fracturing in that region, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s cabinet said Friday. In December, Spain made changes to its environmental rules, speeding up the project review process and specifically addressing shale drilling for the first time, which experts say will lead to a flurry of hydraulic fracturing activity. But locals have opposed the process, and Cantabria vowed to fight the central government to keep mining companies out of its shale.
Spain to challenge Cantabria’s fracking ban in court by Jose Elias Rodriguez; Writing by Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Mark Potter, January 24, 2014, Reuters
Spain’s central government will file a legal challenge in the country’s Constitutional Court to a fracking ban in the region of Cantabria, it said on Friday. The central government will argue it has jurisdiction in the matter and that Cantabria’s ban violates the national law on hydrocarbons, according to published resolutions from Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s weekly cabinet meeting. Spain’s parliament in November passed an environmental impact law that could open the door to hydraulic fracturing or fracking, a controversial method of extracting shale gas that has not been used up to now in the country. The method has been banned in France and Bulgaria and lawmakers in the northern region of Cantabria unanimously voted in April to prohibit it on environmental grounds. … This week the European Commission revealed its 2030 energy strategy without barriers to exploring non-conventional, or shale, gas. [Emphasis added]
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