As hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, transforms America's energy sector and environmental policy, Europe has been reluctant to embrace the drilling technique. Will this reluctance harm the continent's economic growth and emission curbing efforts?
"France and Bulgaria have already banned it, and in Britain the government’s attempts to promote it have led to heated demonstrations in the countryside. It is complicating Germany’s attempts to wean itself from fossil fuels and forcing Russia to recalibrate the energy-export strategy that sustains its economy," writes Steven Erlanger.
"Now the temptation to follow the United States in extracting shale gas from rock on a large scale is presenting Europe with contentious trade-offs that could affect the Continent’s economic competitiveness, test its commitment to curbing climate change and determine its place in a 21st-century version of the Great Game."
FULL STORY: As Drilling Practice Takes Off in U.S., Europe Proves Hesitant
New Oil and Gas Drilling in California May Be Subject to Moratorium
Gov. Gavin Newsom pleased environmentalists by doing what his predecessor, Gov. Jerry Brown, refused – halting all new oil and gas fracking and placing a moratorium on another extraction method linked to a massive oil spill in Kern County.
Department of Interior Plans to Open 1 Million Acres in California to Fracking
The Bakersfield Office of the Bureau of Land Management released an environmental study that is the basis for undoing a 2013 de facto moratorium on fracking on federal lands in California. The Supplemental EIS triggers a 45-day public comment period.
Fracking is Causing Earthquakes in Ohio
The wastewater well from the process of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, triggered 167 earthquakes in and around Youngstown, Ohio, during a single year of operation, according to research in the Journal of Geophysical Research.
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