China is doing well to source domestic and international deposits of shale gas. Policymakers both domestic and foreign must be deft with their involvement and oversight of these markets. It is understandable that there are those who would rather see investments be made into renewable energy production and methods. However, pushing to far in creating policy that detracts from the progress already made in shifting from other fossil fuels into shale gas, may see these same producers shift back to using coal and other fossil fuels with higher emissions levels altogether. To touch briefly on the topic, sourcing energy methods is also a consideration that is of national security importance. This is just one consideration that policymakers have to grapple with when it comes to understanding the interplay of shale gas and the other energy production sources. As the author notes, there is still much work to be done on China’s account to ensure that regulation of shale energy sourcing and consumption is up to par with other nations who rely heavily on natural gas as an energy source. The state has a particularly high level of control over exploration rights to state-owned enterprises and a small number of privately held firms. Yet a problem with not allowing more experienced firms to do the exploration is that the novelty of the exploration will result in a variety of oft results, the least of which being that a source may be overlooked because it is not as readily apparent to a more naive set of explorers. It is recommended that China allow for a greater number of experienced, read: foreign, companies to do larger exploration projects to ensure that the global market of shale gas is properly accounted.
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