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Shale will free US from oil imports, says ex-BP boss

BBC: The big growth in oil extracted from shale rock means the US will not need to import any crude within two decades, the former boss of BP has said. Lord Browne told a conference in Oxford the US would be "completely independent of imported oil, probably by 2030". He also said the amount of shale gas in the US was "effectively infinite". Shale oil and gas is extracted using a method called fracking, but the process has been controversial because of the environmental risks associated with it....

United Kingdom: Giving an invasive water pest the bullet

BBC: If someone mentions mussels and your first thought is a big bowl of moules mariniere, then you are not alone. However, the popular seafood dish has a much less palatable relative, the freshwater zebra mussel. An invasive species, the zebra mussel clogs up water works and systems across the UK, costing millions of pounds each year to remove. The removal is more often done by having to send down divers to hack them off by hand. This is because it is very difficult to get rid of zebra mussels...