Frenchies are hilarious. Their banks bought billions of euros worth of worthless Greek debt and can't admit the massive losses they're about to take. Meanwhile their government is very concerned about the mostly imaginary environmental hazards of fracking in oil exploration. France's new ban on hydraulic fracturing ensures that Frenchies' energy needs will be held hostage to instability in Libya and elsewhere indefinitely. This is just too darn bad. The Paris Basin's geology resembles that of the U.S.'s oil-rich Bakken Formation and may hold very large amounts of shale oil. Frenchies are handcuffing themselves by eliminating a very successful exploration method.
The U.S. isn't that dumb (not yet anyway, although arguably we can give the rest of the world a run for its money in other categories of stupidity). The Niobrara Formation has plenty of shale oil and natural gas. Fracking is the only way to get at it. Explorers are plenty busy in Wyoming to bring this trapped energy to you and me. If I owned some shale-rich land I'd love to let wildcatters go fracking all over it in search of oil.
