Europeans tend to be very polite in general.... 5. Would you agree that Europe is better equiped than the US to ensure that shale gas is exctracted safely (quote from Polish MEP Boguslav Sonik (Euractive, 24/07/12)? Yes, but not because it is Europe.  Any late adaptor of any technology can learn from the experience of the early adaptors and do things better.  In the case of hydraulic fracturing, they can demand that the companies post on the internet the chemical contents of the cocktails they send down, demand to measure the chemical composition of water tables before and after hydraulic fracturing, demand that the flow back water be stored in closed containers rather than in open pools on the surface, demand that the water is treated to a certain standard or otherwise disposed of underground in a certain safe way and so on.  Europeans can learn from the extensive American experience and introduce safe regulatory regime that would avoid much of the risk associated with this technique.