Russian leader Vladimir Putin wants to ban fracking in other countries because “if you frack, black stuff comes out of the tap.”
An article in the May 5 edition of the National Review online by Robert Zubrin, president of Pioneer Energy, said Putin and Alexey Miller, chief of state-owned Gazprom, are pushing an EU-wide ban on fracking.
But Kremlin opposition to European fracking “has nothing to do with environmental concerns . . . because Russia has massive fracking projects of its own underway in Siberia,” Zubrin said.
“The real goal is to keep Europe dependent upon Russia for its fuel supply.”
“Natural-gas prices in Europe are quadruple those prevailing in the United States, and by maintaining a near-monopoly on overpriced European natural-gas imports, the Putin regime assures itself of a vast source of revenue,” Zubrin said.
“[I]t should come as no surprise that the Putin regime is pulling out all the stops in fomenting the global anti-fracking movement, with Europe as its central target.”
Zubrin said if Europe’s fuel supplies remain under Russian control, the continent is doomed to fall under Russian domination.
But shale-rich France and Germany have already banned fracking, he said.
“Ukraine has the third-largest shale resources in Europe. But, as a result of the Western paralysis caused by Europe’s Russian-gas dependency, Ukraine is being conquered, and in fact, its eastern reserves have already been overrun.”
Robert Zubrin’s article in the National Review is here.
