france bans fracking in shale gas development, netherlands gives permits

in an earlier post i wrote about shale gas protesting in france (protest song by my brother here).

this week the french government has banned the use of fracking in shale gas exploration/development.

this is extremely good news, and shows that protest can be effective.

sadly, at the same time my own government has given exploration permits to a number of companies to look for shale gas even in the area where i live. so i just signed a protest petition on www.gnmf.nl (in dutch). i hope that many people will sign, and protest in other ways as well.