Globe and Mail: Fracking for good: It’s time to embrace the shale solution

The crisis in Ukraine has thrown into sharp relief the importance of having a reliable supply of energy sources. Ukraine is completely dependent on Russia’s Gazprom for its gas supply, as are European Union members Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Czech Republic. Over all, the EU gets one-third of its gas supplies from Russia.

Desperate to lessen Gazprom’s stranglehold, Europe is now looking to liquefied natural gas from North Africa and the Middle East. But, as Canadians well know from the progress of British Columbia’s efforts to export LNG, these huge and costly projects take years to complete.

Failure to tap Europe’s shale-gas potential is helping Russian President Vladimir Putin keep a grip on his most powerful strategic lever. But it doesn’t have to be this way. The International Energy Agency estimates that Europe holds trillions of cubic metres of shale-gas potential.
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