News from the EU, Germany and Ireland, all positive for shale. The big story is EU regulation. There are two types of shale opponent in Europe:  Environmentalists who make all the noise, and vested interests who have all the money - and see shale as helping them lose it.Think coal, nuclear, CCS, gas storage, Nabucco, Russia, Centrica, GDF Suez etc etc.  They can't really oppose an energy source, but they sure wish it would simply go away. And as a general rule the best way to kick a problem into touch in Europe is to say it's an issue, send it to Brussels and blame them. But the bureaucrats aren't playing:

 The European Union has adequate legislation to protect the environment as companies including Chevron Corp. explore for shale gas in several member states, a study commissioned by the EU regulatory arm showed.

Obama's new emphasis on gas wasn't a one day wonder as he stopped in Colorado and Vegas to hail gas.

This was him in Las Vegas:

 Visiting Las Vegas today, President Obama officially opened the country's first natural gas trucking corridor, a stretch linking California's Long Beach with Utah's Salt Lake City, along which properly equipped medium- and heavy-duty trucks can tank up on compressed natural gas. CNG-fueled buses will be familiar to passengers in cities from Delhi to New York. But using CNG as the main fuel for trucks is a relatively new idea, first given a high-profile pitch several years ago by famed oilman T. Boone Pickens in his "Pickens plan."

It's not yet the time that we can start yawning about UK shale finds as we do in North America,  but today's news from Igas underlines that Cuadrilla may not have been so much lucky as simply first:

 IGas Energy Plc, a U.K. developer of coal-bed methane gas fields, encountered a shale gas deposit while drilling at the Ince Marshes site in Cheshire in northwest England.

After drilling through coal seams, IGas found a shale section of at least 1,000 feet (304 meters) with gas indications observed across the interval, IGas said in a statement today.

Why is the headline Obama backs shale gas drilling important?

 President Barack Obama on Tuesday pledged support for the U.S. shale gas boom, but said government must focus on safe development of the energy resource.

In his State of the Union address, Obama called for government to develop a roadmap for responsible shale gas production and said his administration would move forward with "common-sense" new rules to make sure drillers protect the public.

"America will develop this resource without putting the health and safety of our citizens at risk," Obama said.