WSJ: Beijing's Problem With Shale

Natural gas is often seen as an ideal option to optimize China's unsustainable energy mix. Gas could improve the country's environment because of its lower air pollution and carbon emissions. Abundant domestic gas supplies could also make the country less dependent on energy imports, a longstanding goal of Beijing. Demand for gas is planned to grow to 260 billion cubic meters by 2015, up from 108 in 2010, an astonishing annual growth rate of almost 20%.

But since gas production increased by only 14% a year between 2006 and 2010, China needs to either quickly ramp up its domestic gas  MORE