Step on the gas.. with care!

Excellent post by Suvrat Kher, geologist, on the implications of using shale gas as an energy source in India:
Over the last few months, several articles and papers have emphasized the potential role shale gas will play in India's hunt for energy. Shale gas is natural gas trapped in fine grained sediment.
I don't know how much shale gas resources India has because there has not been a systematic evaluation of shale gas. India's current energy policy prohibits exploitation of shale gas and coal-bed methane. The sooner that policy changes the better for energy starved India.
Still, there is one aspect of exploiting these resources that has not been touched upon by any of the articles I have come across and that is the environmental costs of extracting shale gas.
He goes on to point out the social and environment costs, the regional implications as well that need to be carefully dealt with.