NYTimes: Some in Europe Are Rethinking Opposition to Fracking

In oil -rich parts of Texas, hydraulic fracturing has almost become a way of life. Drilling rigs and pumping equipment pepper the landscape, and enormous trucks carrying oil field supplies rumble down narrow, dusty roads.

In Europe, things could hardly be more different. Opposition to hydraulic fracturing — the process of injecting water, sand and chemicals into the earth to blast apart rock and retrieve oil or natural gas — is widespread and entrenched. Some countries, including France, ban the practice, which is also known as fracking.

“There is a head of steam up against fracking,” said Jonathan Stern, chairman of the natural gas research program at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies in England.

In Germany, beer brewers recently urged a ban on fracking, citing concerns about groundwater contamination, according to the newspaper Bild.

Europe’s opposition is being put to the test, however, as pro-fracking forces lobby for exploring underground shale gas reserves. They argue that locally drilled natural gas can create jobs and increase energy security — a potent argument for a continent uncomfortably reliant on natural gas from Russia. Last week, a group of British business leaders, the Institute of Directors, put out a report saying that developing shale gas reserves could lead to tens of thousands of jobs.  MORE