While fracking in the US remains a hugely contentious issue, a lack of groundwater regulation combined with an incredible thirst for energy production has led China to push for a massive fracking boom in coming years.
According to a report by Caixin, a white paper released by the Chinese State Council envisions a fracking industry that can extract 6.5 billion meters of natural gas a year by 2015. Supplementary documents dug up by Caixin suggest that China is aiming for that industry to boom to 100 billion cubic meters of capacity a year by 2020.
It's a push led by the fact that China has the world's largest proven shale gas reserves, but production lags far behind the US, which is the world's leader in that regard. While such a boom will help power China's future, the government calling for such a quick increase in industrial production is surprisingly pointed. Caixin's Wang Xiaocong may have figured out why: China currently has no environmental regulation protecting groundwater. From the story:
Adding an environmental standard to a law book takes at least three years in China, which helps explain why the State Council's decision to fast-track the nation's fledgling shale gas industry is making a lot of people nervous.
China has no rules to protect groundwater and other resources from the potentially harmful side-effects of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." A Ministry of Environmental Protection source said the agency would need three to five years to write one.
Whether or not you agree that pumping millions of gallons of chemically-laden water underground is a good idea–Chinese proponents argue that Chinese reserves are usually much deeper than aquifers, and that the chemicals break down quickly–the sheer volume of water required for such an increase in production is also cause for concern. Fracking takes around 10 times more water than conventional drilling. As Wang notes:
An industry expert said to reach the government's annual shale gas production goal of 6.5 cubic meters by 2015, up to 1,380 wells will have to be drilled nationwide, which altogether would require up to 13.8 million cubic meters of water. China's entire industrial sector currently consumes about 35 billion cubic meters of water a year.
Considering how massive China's industrial sector is, that's a stunning increase in water demand, and that doesn't even come close to how much water will be required if the 100 billion meter goal is to be reached. And remember, that's all freshwater that's being laden with chemicals and silt and injected deep underground, where at best it's inaccessible, and at worst it leaks into and taints the rest of underground water reserves.
In the end, it sounds all too familiar: The country needs to boost its energy production, and with huge reserves and zippo regulation, the time is night to build out industrial capacity as quickly as possible. And yeah, China has become a world powerhouse in wind turbines, and the country only wants to strengthen its death grip on solar production. But that never meant that China had suddenly become a paragon of environmental friendliness; we are talking about the country that's discussed blowing up 700 mountains to build a new city. It only means that, as it is in many facets of its industry and economy, China is trying to grow as quickly as it can.