What scares me is people like "C" I live on top of Marcellus shale, Utica shale and Devonian shale plays. Fracking works. Ground water is not polluted. In Washington County and Green County, PA we have about 850 producing wells.
There is more supply than demand and some wells are being capped. The price of gas at the well head is low enough that drillers are not going to make money if they drill more wells.
Works for me! I know the industry personally and A. it does not harm the environment. B. The people involved are very considerate and kind and where they show up the oil companies build Boy Scout Camps and construct fire departments in the community. They are very considerate of my property in the Fayetteville Shale Project and are environmentally and socially responsible. Where they have come to work people now have jobs and the property values went up and empty houses are now rented. I get a royalty check every month from them, right on time and when they leave the property is in better shape than when they arrived! This is personal experience with these guys not made up stuff fabricated just to make people scared and angry. They reclaim and clean up all the fracking materials and water they use and there has been no adverse effect on the land in the 20 years I've been in contact with this.
Many European countries have banned fracking on environmental concerns, water usage or quality issues, etc.. and some protests may be financed in part by Russia in order to preserve their power and keep gas prices high...sounds like something Putin would do.
So yes, their should be more emphasis on fracking or other methods to produce more energy in Europe to make them more energy independent and not allow Russia to have a major impact in the geopolitics of Europe or border countries like Ukraine.
Increasing gas supplies in the US via fracking would take too long to develop enough infrastructure at ports for compressing CNG and costly to transport to Europe...better to have European countries develop/increase their own supplies. If they are so concerned about dangers with fracking based on stories from the US ,then it would be hypocritical of European people to accept our gas exports from fracking just so they can stay warm in winter and have energy to run their economies. Let them deal with their own energy sources and find ways to alleviate any problems...it can be done safely or with minimal risks. It's either that or be ready to submit to Russia who can turn off the gas taps at will.
"A December 2012 article in Foreign Affairs suggested that Russia, to preserve the high price it receives for gas exports, has financed environmental groups in Bulgaria and the Czech Republic to oppose hydraulic fracturing; arguing that there aren't normally large protests in those countries.[4]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_f...
"Britain is one of several European countries where experts think there could be commercially exploitable shale gas. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that there may be as much as 600 trillion cubic feet of recoverable shale gas in Europe, or about 40 years’ consumption."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/busine...
Gee get me a bag of whatever you've been smoking. Fracking is already polluting ground water in many places. Fracking releases over 100 chemicals as part of the process. We don't even know what will result with some of these chemicals in combination. We need to stop all fracking
Gazprom is responsible for 10% of Russia's GDP.
No because at the current technology we have it would cost more to extract the natural gas than to make a profit out of it.
Who is "we"
In the US companies are flaring natural gas because it is uneconomical to sell it. Maybe they will give it to you for free if you pay for shipping....
Frack ya.
With the poor political situation in Russia it would be silly to take so long before production. In the last war this job would be producing by now.
