A split over France’s ban on shale gas development has emerged within the government, with one minister supporting an experimental type of “clean fracking.” French Minister for Industrial Renewal Arnaud Montebourg, a member of President Francois Hollande ‘s Socialist Party, is calling on the president to reconsider his opposition to hydraulic fracturing due to what he calls the emergence of environmentally safer methods to extract natural gas trapped in shale rock. Despite Hollande’s public reiteration in July of opposition, on environmental grounds, to any exploitation of shale gas during his tenure, Montebourg has renewed his efforts to push for a change in policy — touting a potential of a type of fracking that uses fluoropropane, rather than a mix of water and chemical additives, to break apart underground rock formations. Other ministers, including Housing Minister Cecile Duflot of the Green Party, or EELV, and […]