Al Gore's gas warning to WA Former US vice-president Al Gore said WA should proceed with gas fracking only under strict regulations. FORMER US vice-president Al Gore said WA should proceed with gas fracking only if the Government could ensure the "strictest possible regulation." The environmental activist who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work promoting climate change action said the enormous volumes of water needed for the process could be controversial in a dry environment such as Australia's. "While I'm not a citizen of Australia and I don't have a vote there, I would recommend there be the strictest possible regulation because there have been damages associated with this process," Mr Gore told The Sunday Times. You have many areas of WA that are water-short, so allocating large volumes of water to fracking will no doubt run into controversy there. A parliamentary inquiry was recently launched by the Standing Committee on Environment and Public Affairs to investigate the effects of hydraulic fracturing of unconventional or shale gas in WA. It will look into how fracking may impact on present and future uses of land, the regulation of chemicals used in the process, the use of groundwater in the process and the rehabilitation of any land that has been hydraulically fractured. The inquiry was launched after conservation and environmental groups launched a campaign against the process, which uses pressurised liquid to fracture rocks to extract embedded gas from deep below the Earth's surface. WA Mines and Petroleum Department director-general Richard Sellers said the untapped gas riches under the Kimberley in the vast Canning Superbasin could spark the next great resources boom. He claimed WA had the most stringent regulations to protect the environment. WA was estimated to hold the fifth-largest shale gas seam in the world. Mr Gore said shale gas could be a "bridge fuel" while renewable energies were developed, which would lessen the reliance on coal for energy. But he warned that introducing a carbon price was necessary to reduce methane leakages and groundwater pollution during fracking. "If even a small percentage of methane leaks during the production process into the atmosphere, it completely wipes out any global warming advantage vis- agr-vis coal," he said. Mr Gore was in New York to speak about global warming at various events, including the Clinton Global Initiative and the Social Good Summit, while world leaders met for the UN general assembly debate.