differences between the ministers of Industry and Health

The oil drilling project in Seine-et-Marne, against which the Paris town hall has initiated summary proceedings, is causing tension within the government itself. While the environmentalist deputy for Paris Sandrine Rousseau asked the government to“stop immediately” this project, denouncing an authorization from the executive “irresponsible” during the government questions session at the National Assembly, the Minister of Industry Roland Lescure replied that this “respected the law that was passed here.” By evoking the 2017 law which provides for the end of hydrocarbon production in France by 2040.

“This law provides that the concessions (…) can be exploited until 2040. The one you are talking about is 2034”, declared the minister. He further listed “extreme conditions” provided for by the prefectural decree, including monitoring by a geologist of the drilling work, “specific criteria imposed on the fluids used for drilling, the control of all the chemicals used on the site, the control of the cementing of the wells and obviously the measurement of turbidity, that is to say the water quality”.

A vision which is not completely shared by Frédéric Valletoux, the former mayor of Fontainebleau and deputy for Seine-et-Marne who became Minister of Health in February. “As mayor of Fontainebleau and then as a deputy, I have repeatedly expressed my reservations and concerns about the extension of the platform in question with regard to the environmental and health impact for the territory, in unison with the mayors of the municipality concerned and nearby municipalities”he told TF1 on Tuesday. “It’s a conviction that I had as an MP and that I still have as a minister”he added.

Read also“A potential environmental disaster”: Paris town hall opposes an oil drilling project in Seine-et-Marne

It must be said that the subject has been controversial for several days. The Paris town hall denounced on Monday “a potential environmental catastrophe, at a time when water resources are increasingly threatened”, fearing consequences for the catchments of its water authority. Its operator, Eau de Paris, filed an application with the Melun administrative court to suspend the prefectural decree of January 30 authorizing the opening of work on the Nonville hydrocarbon concession, near Nemours, 80 km to the south. is from Paris. According to the town hall and the oil producing company Bridge Energies, the decision should be known in the coming days.

For Dan Lert, deputy for ecological transition and president of Eau de Paris, the government “play with fire” because 180,000 Parisians and Seine-et-Marnais receive their drinking water from the two catchments located near the oil site, in Villeron and Villemer. The company Bridge Energies holds a concession to exploit the current deposit until 2034 in Nonville, where only one of its three drillings still produces oil, for the equivalent of 75 barrels per day. She obtained from the State to open two others, with a depth of 1,500 m, following a public inquiry.