Ukraine Crisis Spurs Fracking-Friendly Measure in Poland [View all]

[Catherina]

Ukraine Crisis Spurs Fracking-Friendly Measure in Poland

Poland's Prime Minister Tusk says fracking will be tax-free until 2020
- Andrea Germanos, staff writer


A crowd welcomes a screening of the documentary "Drill Baby Drill" in Warsaw. (Photo: greensefa/cc/flickr)

As the crisis in Ukraine continues to put a spotlight on Russia's stranglehold over European gas supplies, Poland has offered a frack-friendly proposal of making shale gas extraction tax-ree in the country.

"We adopted measures that should encourage shale gas exploration," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Tuesday.

According to the new measures, fracking will be tax-free until 2020, and after that point taxes "shouldn't exceed 40 percent of extraction income," Tusk said.

The first commercial shale well in the country is expected this year, and as many as 30 fracking wells could be drilled this year.

Poland's burgeoning "dash for gas" has also brought environmental and public health concerns, and led a group of protesters to blockade a Chevron fracking site last year.

On Monday, Tusk warned of the consequences of European countries' reliance on Russian gas, saying, "We will not be able to efficiently fend off potential aggressive steps by Russia in the future, if so many European countries are dependent on Russian gas deliveries or wade into such dependence."

Chancellor Angela Merkel is set to make a visit to Poland on Wednesday to discuss the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.

"Increasingly more expensive energy in Europe due to exorbitant climate and environmental ambitions may also mean greater dependence in Russian energy sources...Hence, I will talk (to Merkel) primarily about how Germany is able to correct some economic actions so that dependence on Russian gas doesn't paralyze Europe when it needs...a decisive stance," Reuters reports Tusk as saying.

________________
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/03/11-6

Frack baby, frack!



Our Assistant Secretary of State looked so cute between that Chevron and Exxon Mobile logos when she admitted we poured over $5 billion into Ukraine for the mess we're seeing today.

Since Ukraine’s independence in 1991, the United States has supported Ukrainians as they build democratic skills and institutions, as they promote civic participation and good governance, all of which are preconditions for Ukraine to achieve its European aspirations. We’ve invested over $5 billion to assist Ukraine in these and other goals that will ensure a secure and prosperous and democratic Ukraine.

--Victoria Nuland, US Assistant Secretary of State and wife of PNAC co-founder Robert Kagan, at the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation Conference event sponsored by the corporations above to discuss how the goal of "democracy" in Ukraine was almost reached and how "The Euro-Maidan movement has come to embody the principles and values that are the cornerstones for all free democracies." Dec 13, 2013