Why Europe Will Perish, Or Why It Can't Fix Itself

I have put forth the thesis that Europe is unable to slaughter its own sacred cows, and therefore it will go down in flames.  Today brings further evidence that I am on to something.

Spain teeters on the edge of insolvancy, it has unemployment of 22%, a youth unemployment rate in the 40s.  It needs economic growth and activity desperately.  So, of course, what does it do in the face of the chance to extract energy via fracking - the same fracking technology that has set the US off on a revolutionary boom in energy and provided a rare bright spot in an otherwise dismal jobs landscape?  They ban it. 

Spain is set to enact its first regional ban on producing natural gas using hydraulic fracturing, yielding to objections from environmental groups that so-called fracking risks polluting drinking water.

In the northern Cantabria region, where energy companies say much of Spain’s gas exists in shale rock, the Parliament plans to vote April 8 on suspending the contested drilling technique “as long as current doubts on the technology remain,” according to the bill on the government’s website. All political parties in the region supported the law in a March 21 debate.

BNK Petroleum Inc. (BKX) and R2 Energy Inc. of Canada are among companies hoping to use fracking to shatter shale in Spain and tap what their trade group last month said may be enough gas to meet 70 years of national demand. While environmental protests led to a fracking ban across the border in France, in Spain opponents have failed in provinces except for Cantabria, where an estimated $100 million of exploration projects are forecast.

One more piece of evidence that Europe cannot fix itself, it has to hit rock bottom, which given recent events looks like it may be closer than farther away.

Note: even irredeemably anti-development institutions - like this one - recognize the revolution in the making that is America's fracking boom.