Reports: Shale Gas Bubble Looms, Aided by Wall Street

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/02/20

Reports: Shale Gas Bubble Looms, Aided by Wall Street
by Steve Horn
Published on Wednesday, February 20, 2013 by DeSmog Blog

Two long-awaited reports were published Wednesday at ShaleBubble.org by the Post Carbon Institute (PCI) and the Energy Policy Forum (EPF).

Together, the reports conclude that the hydraulic fracturing ("fracking&quot boom could lead to a "bubble burst" akin to the housing bubble burst of 2008.

While most media attention towards fracking has focused on the threats to drinking water and health in communities throughout North America and the world, there is an even larger threat looming. The fracking industry has the ability - paralleling the housing bubble burst that served as a precursor to the 2008 economic crisis - to tank the global economy.

Playing the role of Cassandra, the reports conclude that "the so-called shale revolution is nothing more than a bubble, driven by record levels of drilling, speculative lease & flip practices on the part of shale energy companies, fee-driven promotion by the same investment banks that fomented the housing bubble..." a summary details. "Geological and economic constraints – not to mention the very serious environmental and health impacts of drilling – mean that shale gas and shale oil (tight oil) are far from the solution to our energy woes."