BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany should tread carefully in developing hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to tap shale gas reserves, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday, in some of her first public comments on the controversial drilling technique.
Fracking has created a shale gas boom in the United States but it faces opposition in some European countries where critics say it could increase seismic risks and pollute drinking water.
"New deposits of gas could very probably be tapped in Germany with this technology but in contrast to the United States, we live in a very densely populated country," Merkel told the Straubinger Tagblatt newspaper.