| Online: | |
| Visits: | |
| Stories: |
| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
Benny Peiser: Shalegas news roundup – Dusky Ruskies using Greenpeace Huskies
From Benny Peiser by email:
Europe’s Energy Security At Risk From Green & Russian Lobbies
How far will Russian President Vladimir Putin go to stop fracking in Europe? Tint his thinning hair an eco-friendly color? According to NATO Secretary General Anders Rasmussen, Russia’s myriad intelligence agencies are working directly with European environmental groups to fund anti-fracking campaigns. Putin is doing this to slow the spread of the U.S. shale revolution across the Atlantic so Russia can hold on to its monopoly of the European natural gas market. Europe’s energy insecurity – its dependence on Russian gas – has proven to be Putin’s favorite tool of geopolitical blackmail. Putin can continue to funnel rubles to Europe’s environmental activist groups and hope to slow the spread of the shale revolution. But Russian dominance of the European gas market is on borrowed time. –William F. Shughart II, Forbes, 4 July 2014
You could spend 10 million bucks on a “buy Gazprom” PR campaign, or you could buy the former chancellor of Germany. Gerhard Schroeder now sits on a Gazprom board. So he is undermining any politics in Germany to be energy independent. –Ezra Levant, The Daily Caller, 30 June 2014
The risk of water supplies being contaminated as a result of fracking is much lower in Britain than in the United States because almost all the recoverable shale oil and gas is at least 650m (2,132ft) below groundwater layers, a study by the British Geological Survey (BGS) has found. It said that the distance between the water and shale was at least 650m in the Weald basin in the South Downs, and 800m in the Bowland basin in Lancashire and Yorkshire. –Ben Webster, The Times, 4 July 2014
Russia is in the midst of an ugly fight with Ukraine, and it has the potential to upend energy markets around the world. That’s a big problem for Russia’s Gazprom, the state-controlled natural gas giant. On top of that, there are now accusations of covert efforts to hamper shale gas drilling in Europe. According to Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Russia is doing this by funding anti-fracking groups. There are good reasons for Russia to undertake such a covert operation. For starters, Gazprom would suffer greatly if its European business started to slip away. Second, by keeping Europe hooked on Gazprom gas, Russia maintains a strong bargaining position in world politics. –Reuben Brewer, The Motley Fool, 4 July 2014
Germany plans to halt shale-gas drilling for the next seven years over concerns that exploration techniques could pollute groundwater. “There won’t be [shale gas] fracking in Germany for the foreseeable future,” German Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks (SPD) said Friday in Berlin. The government’s planned regulations come amid a political standoff with Russia, Germany’s main gas supplier, and following intensive lobbying from environmentalists and brewers concerned about possible drinking water contamination. –Jan Hromadko and Harriet Torry, The Wall Street Journal, 4 July 2014
Gazprom does not hide its contempt for fracking, even though they have signed large fracking contracts in Siberia. They’re obviously fine to frack their own country, but they do not want competitors to frack. They denounce fracking in America, and in Europe. We saw … Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the secretary general of NATO, say that Gazprom has co-opted western environmentalist groups. Remember, Vladimir Putin is a former KGB agent — this is what he did during the Cold War. They undermined the West from the West. They financed peace and disarmament groups. –Ezra Levant, The Daily Caller, 30 June 2014
1) The KGB’s Successors And The ‘Greening’ Of Europe – Forbes, 4 July 2014
2) British Geological Survey: Deep Fracking ‘Is Not A Threat To Water Supplies’ – The Times, 4 July 2014
3) Would Russia Kill European Fracking To Protect Gazprom? – The Motley Fool, 4 July 2014
4) Germany Bans Fracking Until 2021, Caves In To Green & Russian Lobbies - The Wall Street Journal, 4 July 2014
5) Ezra Levant: Fracking Means Freedom From Russia, OPEC – The Daily Caller, 30 June 2014
Source: http://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2014/07/04/benny-peiser-shalegas-news-roundup-dusky-ruskies-using-greenpeace-huskies/
