– Vaud leaves the door closed to “local” gas extraction
PLR and UDC tried in vain to reverse the ban on searching for hydrocarbons in the Vaudois subsoil. The potential of the Noville deposit is questioned.
Published today at 9:03 p.m.
Fourteen years ago, exploratory drilling confirmed the presence of natural gas in Noville.
Patrick Martin
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- The canton of Vaud is debating the resumption of natural gas prospecting.
- The right wants to anticipate an energy shortage by authorizing gas research.
- The Greens criticize this strategy as counterintuitive to zero carbon targets.
- The new drilling platforms would not be operational until 2033 at the earliest.
A month after the Federal Council reopened the door to the construction of new nuclear power plants, was the canton of Vaud going to do the same for gas prospecting? His ban, decided by Parliament in 2018is being questioned by the right.
The PLR returned to the charge on Tuesday at the Grand Council, to add a paragraph to the law, worded as follows: “In order to anticipate the risk of energy shortage and to support the cantonal energy strategy, the Council of State can , by decree (…), authorize the search for hydrocarbons.
And here is the 2018 debate relaunched. In a hot political context: the Council of State has just presented its new “Energy Law”which notably calls for the abandonment of fossil fuels. “It is counterintuitive to want to extract hydrocarbons, when we are aiming for zero carbon in 2050. It is a headlong rush, a pillow of laziness,” reacted Green Minister Vassilis Venizelos.
Energy autonomy
PLR mover Marc-Olivier Buffat justifies the fact of half-opening the door to the search for “local” natural gas by the risk of energy shortages, linked to our dependence on gas-exporting states: “In 2022, the Federal Council recommended that we put a lid on the pots. It would be wrong to think that this is ancient history.”
The Noville deposit, discovered during exploratory drilling carried out by the Petrosvibri company between 2009 and 2010, is the subject of various assessments. Expert extrapolations outline the great potential of Lake Geneva’s subsoil, which would “supply our country with natural gas for twenty-five years,” says Marc-Olivier Buffat. But alone, the Noville well would only provide “10% of gas consumption in the canton, and 3% after five years”, figures Vassilis Venizelos. However, given the procedural delays and foreseeable oppositions, new drilling platforms could not be operational “before 2033 at the earliest”.
“But we will always need this gas, at least to a certain extent, it is included in the Confederation’s strategy beyond 2035,” argues PLR Grégory Bovay. Opposite, Mathilde Marendaz (EàG) evokes “a political choice, a societal choice: the financial resources and the working hours of the services, we should direct them as a priority on the planning of energy sobriety and the development of renewable energies .”
The motion was refused by a majority made up of the left bloc and the Green Liberals; some abstentions were also counted in the PLR.
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