THERE is no silver pipelining. The UK's new environment secretary, Owen Paterson, wants to fast-track the country's exploitation of shale gas to reduce reliance on imports - but a study pours cold water on the idea.
It had been hoped that the controversial fracking technique could allow Europe to match the US's success in extracting natural gas from shale rocks. Now the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) says that, at best, Europe's shale gas will only compensate for its slowing production of conventional gas. Europe will still have to import 60 per cent of its needs, says the JRC's Unconventional Gas report.
The message is in line with a recent paper by Paul Stevens of Chatham House, the foreign affairs think tank in London, UK. He claims Europe's geology makes fracking more difficult, and says the effort faces major regulatory hurdles, at least in western Europe.
If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.
Have your say
Only subscribers may leave comments on this article. Please log in.
Only personal subscribers may leave comments on this article
Subscribe now to comment.
All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.
If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.
knicks coach encyclopedia britannica pi white lion mike d antoni resigns holes ncaa brackets 2012
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.