July 1, 2014 | Memo
The Petropower War On Fracking
FDD Research
In London late last month, NATO’s Secretary General revealed what many in the energy industry have long suspected: that Moscow has been backing anti-fracking activists in Europe to sabotage Western energy independence. Anders Fogh Rasmussen told the British audience that NATO member states “can report that Russia, as part of their sophisticated information and disinformation operations, engages actively… environmental organizations working against shale gas — obviously to maintain European dependence on imported Russian gas.”
Such activities are only the tip of the iceberg in a broader campaign by some of the world’s biggest exporters of oil and natural gas. America’s closest allies in the Persian Gulf have been bankrolling several other prominent efforts to undermine America’s new energy windfall.2 Thanks in large part to new extraction techniques such as hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, it’s the dawn of a new energy era for the United States.
Due to their abundance of energy resources, these Arab Gulf countries have historically been some of America’s closest allies in the Middle East. The United States has provided them with a security umbrella — protecting them from would-be conquerors like former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and Iran’s ayatollahs — in exchange for a steady and (relatively) affordable supply of oil. But now, as the United States makes strides toward certain kinds of energy independence, these Gulf states are meddling in the U.S. political debate to promote their own interests.