Beer And Fracking — An Unwholesome Mix

Beer And Fracking — An Unwholesome Mix by Michael Silverstein and Kay Wood Germans make good beer. Part of this is due to the ingredients used in the brewing. Part to the way beer is brewed. But a major part of German success here is the water used by domestic beer makers. You can’t make good beer without good water. So what does this have to do with fracking? The German beer industry is hurting these days. Competition from other countries and a fall off in domestic consumption (Czechs now drink more beer per capita) is making Germany’s 1,300-plus brewers very leery about anything that might hurt their market. In coming years Germany has announced plans to gradually do away with drilling for shale gas. This is being done in spite of the fact that political disputes over Ukraine with Russia, Germany’s prime source of nature gas, would make an increase in domestic shale gas production appear very appealing. It is. But this is trumped by fear among many Germans about possible contamination of the country’s water by chemicals used in the fracking process. And among the strongest opponents of fracking is the politically powerful German beer industry, which generates billions in annual sales and employs tens of thousands of workers. German brewers don’t like fracking. Germany beer drinkers don’t like fracking. And in the land of the Octoberfest, at least, it seems that beer is still über fracking. *** Michael Silverstein is a long time environmental writer, and former senior editor at Bloomberg. Kay Wood is the author of an environmental graphic novel, The Big Belch.

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