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Germany CEOs Lament Lost Innovation as Fracking Angst Rises

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Thu, 2014-06-12 21:42 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

BMW Chief Executive Officer Norbert Reithofer uses the term “German Angst” to explain the paradox of the country’s innovation ability on one hand and its reluctance to embrace technological change on the other. 
Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg

bloomberg.com - by Sheenagh Matthews - June 10, 2014

Germany has rejected genetically modified crops, nuclear power and magnetic levitation trains. Now, the country that invented the modern car and X-ray technology is adding fracking to the list of innovations it’s wary of.

Business leaders had lobbied for the extraction method, which injects water and chemicals underground, to lessen Germany’s dependence on Vladimir Putin’s Russia where a third of its natural gas supply is derived. Last week, the government started preparing a law to limit fracking to rare cases, unlike in the U.S. where the practice is widespread.

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Country / Region Tags: 
Global
General Topic Tags: 
Energy
Resilience
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 
Situation Report
Groups this Group Post belongs to: 
Innovations - Global
Resilience
Petrochemicals
Green Energy

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Thu, 2014-06-12 21:48 — Kathy Gilbeaux

nytimes.com - by MELISSA EDDY and STANLEY REED- June 5, 2014

BERLIN — In a potential shift in German energy policy, the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel is preparing a framework that would let energy companies extract oil and natural gas by the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

The guidelines emerging from government discussions are strict, but they are a step, as energy companies have been barred from using the technology in recent years, even for conventional gas extraction.

The government is responding to pressure from industry and consumers to develop new sources of fuel and reduce Germany’s dependence on gas imported from Russia.
 
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