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Mark Ruffalo Calls On European Parliament To Block New Gas Projects

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Mark Ruffalo, star of the Hulk movies, waded into a contentious debate today in Brussels over whether the European Union should fund new gas infrastructure projects.

The European Investment Bank, the EU’s lending arm, pledged last year to end support for fossil fuels by 2022. But in devising this year’s list of projects eligible for EIB funding, the European Commission decided that natural gas infrastructure should not be part of the funding ban - because it could be used for future carbon-free green gas such as hydrogen.

That list, which contains 55 gas-related projects, must be approved by the European Parliament. Last month, the parliament’s energy committee gave the list its green light. But the full parliament can still overturn that decision when it meets in Strasbourg next week.

“You are going to vote on 55 fossil fuel projects for gas, liquefied natural gas [brought] to the European Union,” Ruffalo told MEPs while visiting the Parliament today to promote a new movie. Ruffalo is opposed to the new practice of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) now being used to extract gas in the United States. He said additional gas infrastructure in Europe will drive more use of controversial fracking methods for extracting gas in America and elsewhere.

“Fracked gas is going to be taken from my community, it is going to poison our people, and it is the antithesis of moving forward a Green Deal,” he said. “It is absolutely totally against the idea that you are moving forward the Green Deal if you back these 55 projects. And what we are asking you to do, from my community which will be poisoned by your need for our natural gas projects is to dump those projects, scrap them, and put that money into real renewable energy, clean energy projects. You are wasting your money. I promise you, we are going to fight that gas leaving our country, and we are already in the process, so you are wasting your money.”

The European Commission said last year it wants to double gas imports from the United States, as part of an effort to diffuse trade tensions with the Trump administration.

Ruffalo was speaking in Brussels about his new film Dark Waters, and had a private meeting with European Parliament President David Sassoli.

"Supporting fracked gas projects runs counter to the laudable actions of several European countries that have banned fracking including France, Bulgaria, Ireland, Austria, Germany and areas of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain,” he said after his meeting. “Fracking is not safe in those countries, it’s not safe in the United States, and the European Parliament should not import US fracked gas.”

He had earlier posted a video statement to his social media accounts urging the European Parliament to vote against the “Projects of Common Interest” list proposed by the Commission, the EU’s executive branch.

Hydraulic fracturing is a new process which blasts a mixture of water, sand and chemicals to fracture rocks surrounding oil and gas, enabling reserves to be extracted which could not be reached before. The process is controversial because it has been linked to air, water and soil pollution, as well as small earthquakes happening in the fracked area.

Eight EU countries have banned fracking, but it is still being used widely in the United States and increasingly in the United Kingdom.