Christian Bataille: A Pro Shale Gas French Socialist
Christian Bataille is one of only a few shale gas advocates within the French Socialist Party. Since 1988, he has represented in the National Assembly a Northern district devastated by deindustrialization and high unemployment numbers.
Bataille argues in a new congressional report co-sponsored by his UMP right wing colleague from Strasbourg, André Schneider, that shale gas developments could boost job creation, allow Europe to become less dependent on the Russian gas and ultimately reshuffle foreign diplomacy often driven by energy resources.
The two elected officials draw these conclusions from their trip to the United States where they witnessed what they call an “energy miracle” after the collapse of the economy in 2007 and 2008. “The magnitude of the American economic recovery is spectacular. They even named it the shale gas revolution.”
Christian Bataille and André Schneider know how controversial the issue is in France. French President François Hollande repeatedly said before and since he took office his opposition to shale gas explorations and made clear several times he has no intentions to lift a ban on fracking voted under his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy who is known in favor of shale gas developments… That’s why they do not want to see the report interpreted as partisan and pure politics.
“This report do not express an opinion at all, it’s a picture of what we saw in the United States.”
But Bataille's political career has left no doubt as to where he stands on this very issue.The congressman, one of the strongest allies of Arnaud Montebourg, who tried to rekindle the debate on shale gas on the left when he was serving in the government, does not believe in the green economy and growth replacing fossil fuels. “The forecast of shortage is not going to happen and the economy will produce and use gas for decades to come,” Bataille said.
It’s not a huge surprise to see him criticize Hollande's coalition with the Greens. Here’s his reaction back in April when The Figaro broke the story that François Hollande buried a government sponsored report highlighting an alternative to fracking safer for the environment and its benefits for the French economy. “Research is essential. Arnaud Montebourg reacted positively to our own report but the document was slept away at the highest government level because it irritated the Greens,” Bataille said on LCI, a French cable news channel referring to a 2013 bipartisan congressional report aimed to promote explorations of non-conventional resources on the French soil.
This latest attempt by Christian Bataille and his colleague to keep the shale gas debate alive on both sides of the aisle will not have a significant impact until the next congressional elections right after the presidential contest in 2017 especially if François Hollande is not re-elected.
Kevin Bonnaud