WSJ: Germany's Fracking Retreat

Modern environmentalism is sometimes likened to a medieval religion, in which articles of faith remain binding on believers even when contradicted by reason and evidence. A case in point is an astounding German proposal to ban fracking at just the moment when the need to diversify Europe's gas supplies has never been greater.

"There will be no fracking for economic purposes in Germany in the near future," German Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks announced at a press conference on Friday. Under her proposal, developed jointly with fellow Social Democrat and Economics Minister Sigmar Gabriel, most forms of hydraulic fracking—the process of extracting gas by injecting water and sand mixed with a small amount of chemical additives into rocks deep underground—will be prohibited until 2021.

Germany currently imports 90% of its gas supply. Yet the country has up to 2.3 trillion cubic meters of domestic shale gas, according to the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources. "The size of these non-conventional deposits therefore exceeds Germany's conventional natural gas reserves," according to German natural-gas producer Wintershall. "And they could continue supplying Germany for up to 100 years with gas assuming the import rate stays the same."
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