French President Francoise Hollande is vowing no fracking will go on as long as he is in office, saying that the fracking technique of extracting shale gas presents too many “risks to groundwater”.

“We can see some consequences in the United States” from the technique, Hollande said in a Bastille Day interview.  The Internet is loaded with videos of Americans setting their tap water on fire, because it is contaminated with methane and the hydraulic fluids used to fracture rock deep below the surface to force the gas to wells.  Other studies have shown that fracking causes earthquakes.

Energy companies have claimed that tapping France’s potentially large shale gas reserves could revive the ailing French economy.  But President Hollande says that’s already happening.

“The economic recovery is here,” he said, pointing to increases in consumption and in industrial production.

Energy companies have been banned since 2011 from exploiting shale gas in France over fears of environmental risks from the potential air and water pollution involved in fracking.  They had sought to challenge the ban in court, but Hollande is effectively ending that.