Poland Tries to Speed Up Shale Gas Industry

Poland backed a law to speed up hydraulic fracturing on Tuesday. The country also voiced its concerns over European energy policies, pointing out the hike in European natural gas prices.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk met Chancellor Angela Merkel in Warsaw.

“Today gas security is a fundamental prerequisite of sovereignty of every European country, including Poland," Tusk said on Tuesday, on the eve of his meeting with Germany’s Merkel.

Poland’s government offered six-year tax breaks to shale gas projects, avoiding the introduction of special taxes. According to Tusk, the proposal would go through Parliament’s approval as early as early April.

At the beginning of the week, the government ambassadors from Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia called on US authorities to simplify the procedure for gas exports towards Europe.

“I hope President Obama will heed this call from our allies to use his ‘pen and phone’ to direct the Secretary of Energy to immediately approve pending natural gas export requests and do everything possible to use American energy to reduce the dependency on Russia for our friends in Europe and around the globe,” US’ John Boehner, Speaker of the House, commented.