No fracking France, affirms France’s highest court. No, silly utilities, fracking is not like geothermal power. Yes, utilities, you’ll have to write off a lot of fossils in the ground. But there’s far more money to be made in clean energy, so get on with it!

Mat McDermott wrote for Motherboard yesterday, You Can’t Frack France

After a constitutional court review, France's ban on hydraulic fracturing for natural gas and oil has become "absolute," in the words of Environment Minister Phillipe Martin. In its decision, the court found that the ban, which dates back to 2011 but was challenged by fossil fuel companies companies, was not "disproportionate." 

The method companies used to challenge the ban was to challenge the fact that hydraulic fracturing was and is still permitted to be undertaken in production of geothermal power. After reviewing the state of the technology involved, the court found that there is enough difference in the practice and potential environmental harm caused when applied to geothermal versus fossil fuels that prohibiting the latter and permitting the former did not violate France's constitution. 

For opponents of fracking around the world, it's being hailed as a victory, rightly so. But the thing I find most interesting in this all is that it's a perfect example of what is the most direct, if in some ways rockiest, method of preventing climate change—simply deciding, and mandating, that a certain resource, or extraction method in this case, will not be used. 

The story repeats a specious utility claim that keeping 80% of fossil fuels in the ground will mean writing off $20 trillion in assets. That may be true, but there’s a lot more money than that to be made in power from the sun, wind, waves, and tides, plus efficiency and conservation, all tied together with a smart grid. Divest now, VSU, and buy renewable energy stocks. Help utilities not get left behind in their coal-smoked past, and lead us to a bright sunny day!

-jsq

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