McClatchy: Europe wants the energy, but not the fracking
Fracking for oil and natural gas remains slow to take hold in Europe in spite of deepening fears over the continent’s energy dependence on Russia.
Europe is under increasing pressure internally and from the United States to cut energy imports from Russia, which supplies the continent with some 30 percent of its natural gas. But environmental worries and drilling setbacks continue to hold European nations back from fracking to exploit their own potentially large natural gas reserves, even with tensions high over Russia’s seizure of Crimea and ongoing violence in Ukraine.
“There is still a lot of local opposition in Europe, and this will be far from an easy task,” said Anne-Sophie Corbeau, the senior gas analyst for the Paris-based International Energy Agency.