German government discusses 'hydraulic fracturing'

BERLIN (AA) - German Finance Minister Christian Lindner continues to promote the country's rapid entry into the fracking technology in the face of energy crisis, according to local media.

"We have significant gas reserves in Germany that can be extracted without endangering drinking water," Lindner told Funke-Mediengruppe newspapers on Sunday, adding: "The promotion is also responsible under ecological conditions."

The minister also called for "a rapid approach to extraction," which he said would allow Germany to cover a relatively large demand from domestic gas sources in just a few years. The politician added that it was "not responsible to abandon fracking for ideological reasons."

The FDP politician's comments drew opposition from his coalition partners, from the SPD and the Greens. SPD energy expert Nina Scheer told business daily Handelsblatt on Monday: "Anyone who calls for national fracking today is calling for expensive bad investments with serious competition for use."

"Fracking stands for a large number of wells and consequential risks for drinking water, earthquake hazards and consequential damage to the climate and should therefore be rejected," Scheer added.

Dieter Janecek, the Greens' economic expert, also criticized Lindner's move. "To bring fracking deposits to application in Germany would take years," the Green politician told Handelsblatt on Monday.

He added that it would be of no use in the acute energy crisis, and that Germany "wants to switch to green hydrogen in the medium term anyway."