Shale gas and LNG terminals will end Putin´s ability to blackmail Europe

Flashback January 2009:

"Each new LNG terminal decreases Vladimir Putin’s ability to blackmail his neighbours and much of western Europe"

The Economist focuses on the gamechanging shale gas and LNG revolution:

THE juxtaposition of “gas” and “boom” conjures misfortune: mining disasters, Zeppelins in flame and the like. But the gas boom that the world is currently experiencing is a conflagration to be celebrated. The development of previously unexploitable shale gas as a resource in America and other countries, and the growth in the liquefied-natural-gas (LNG) market, between them promise a future in which more gas is traded more freely, to the benefit of the world at large.

Shale gas, as well as gas from other unconventional sources, will swell the ranks of gas producers. Existing producers will gain from more markets opening up as the fuel’s appeal spreads. Consumers will be less likely to find themselves tied to single producers through specific pipelines, with the unpleasant possibilities for political pressure that such arrangements bring with them (see article). Each new LNG terminal decreases Vladimir Putin’s ability to blackmail his neighbours and much of western Europe.

If the boom persists gas may take coal’s place as the world’s second-favourite fuel in just a few decades, and millions will breathe easier as a result. This is because, even were it not cheap and plentiful, gas would be attractive simply on the grounds of cleanliness. It is true that there are questions about the harm that may be done by the “fracking” process that liberates shale gas; there is an urgent need for systematic before-and-after environmental audits. But once the gas is out of the ground, it is a great deal cleaner than coal. It does not distribute neurotoxic mercury around the planet; it does not clog city air and the lungs of those who breathe it with soot and sulphur. Gas is a boon to public health.

Read the entire article here

PS

The European envirofundamentalists have joined forces with Vladimir Putin´s Gazprom and its subsidiary, the Russian-German Nord Stream (led by a former Stasi spy Matthias Warnig and former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder) in order to destroy the American-led shale gas revolution. But the Poles, together with other Europeans who have recent experience of what it means to be dependent on Russian energy, will not allow these dark forces to succeed.