http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ ... -the-world
A trove of secret documents details the US government’s global push for shale gas, reports Mother Jones
According to interviews, diplomatic cables, and other documents obtained by Mother Jones, American officials—some with deep ties to industry—helped US firms clinch potentially lucrative shale concessions overseas, raising troubling questions about whose interests the program actually serves.
In 2009 ... Clinton tapped a lawyer named David Goldwyn as her special envoy for international energy affairs; his charge was “to elevate energy diplomacy as a key function of US foreign policy.”
According to diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks (https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09STATE111742_a.html ), one of Goldwyn’s first acts at the State Department was gathering oil and gas industry executives “to discuss the potential international impact of shale gas.” Clinton then sent a cable to US diplomats, asking them to collect information on the potential for fracking in their host countries. These efforts eventually gave rise to the Global Shale Gas Initiative, which aimed to help other nations develop their shale potential. Clinton promised it would do so “in a way that is as environmentally respectful as possible.”
But environmental groups were barely consulted, while industry played a crucial role.
In August, 2010, delegates from 17 countries descended on Washington for the State Department’s first shale gas conference. The media was barred from attending, and officials refused to reveal basic information, including which countries took part.
... By early 2011, the State Department was laying plans to launch a new bureau to integrate energy into every aspect of foreign policy—an idea Goldwyn had long been advocating. In 2005, he and a Chevron executive named Jan Kalicki had published a book called Energy and Security: Toward a New Foreign Policy Strategy, which argued that energy independence was unattainable in the near term and urged Washington to shift its focus to energy security—by boosting global fossil fuel production and stifling unrest that might upset energy markets.
...diplomatic cables https://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/10/09OTTAWA771.html , described a 2009 meeting during which Goldwyn and Canadian officials discussed development of the Alberta oil sands—a project benefiting some of the same firms behind the US-Libya Business Association. The cable said that Goldwyn had coached his Canadian counterparts on improving “oil sands messaging” and helped alleviate their concerns about getting oil sands crude to US markets.
Shale was not the godsend that industry leaders and foreign governments had hoped it would be. For one, new research from the US Geological Survey http://www.motherjones.com/documents/12 ... gas-report suggested that the EIA assessments had grossly overestimated shale deposits: the recoverable shale gas estimate for Poland shrank from 187tn cubic feet to 1.3tn cubic feet, a 99% drop. ... one industry study estimated that drilling shale gas in Poland would cost three times what it does in the United States.
Despite the public outcry in Europe, the State Department has stayed the course. Clinton’s successor, John Kerry, views natural gas as a key part of his push against climate change. Under Kerry, State has ramped up investment in its shale gas initiative and is planning to expand it to 30 more countries, from Cambodia to Papua New Guinea. ... the Obama administration has also been pressing eastern European countries to fast-track their fracking initiatives so as to be less dependent on Russia.
