Britain took Russia’s annexation of Crimea as a serious sign. A report recently published by the House of Lords stated that exploration and development of the country’s shale gas and oil resources is “an urgent national priority.” Prime Minister David Cameron had announced earlier that it was Britain’s “duty” to embrace fracking—shale gas extraction by hydraulic fracturing—and noted a “wake-up” call for Europe to lessen its reliance on Russian gas.

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The biggest pressure to diversify energy sources has been on the Central and Eastern European countries. Some, such as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia, fully depend on imported Russian natural gas, so shale gas fracking might need to be an option.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that Europe has around 470 trillion cubic feet of potentially recoverable shale gas in total, which amounts to 80 percent of America’s reserves. Taking into account the successful development of the American shale gas industry, these estimates seem to be encouraging. The extraction of natural gas has led to lower gas prices, creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs and growth in gross domestic product, according to America’s Natural Gas Alliance.

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Cameron promised to have wells in Britain “up and running” by the end of this year. However, the British Parliament recently expressed disappointment that exploratory drilling through hydraulic fracturing “has hardly begun.” Apparently, since a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing was lifted in 2012 the Environment Agency has not issued a single permit for such drilling. The debate has become increasingly polarized, with environmentalists warning about earthquakes and water contamination. This raises an important question: whether shale gas is suitable for Europe or is it just an American product, first and foremost.

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