Britain'll look like rural Albania without fracking – House of Lords report

We really don't need shale gas, or to import as much gas as we do. There is still billions of boe in the North Sea and most of it even has the required infrastructure nearby.

Of course it will look like Albania

...because for some reason, wind and solar power are somehow vulgar, but millions of gallons of nasty chemicals injected into the ground and affecting water, isn't.

Carry on.

There is of course the nuclear option, but do you really trust the same money bags that brought you private rail, the NHS digital disaster, the great BBS digital failure, GOV.UK and all the other fun and expensive "projects" you've had to pay for and didn't work... actually building a reliable nuke plant?

Think about that one. Carefully.

Suggestion

Build nuclear reactors instead. They are carbon-free, and the objections to them are false and hysterical. Which isn't true of all the objections to fracking, even if it's true of some of them.

On the other hand...

For now Britain is spared the fallout from fracking: earthquakes.

Yes, I'm well aware there's still a lot of argument but it looks like fracking is the culprit in many recent earthquakes here in the States. Just don't build a nuke plant over a fracking site... ok?

Long-term implications of fracking ..

"Many of the unknowns have long-term implications."

http://www.preventcancernow.ca/health-impacts-of-fracking-and-shale-gas-development

"Fracking Hell: The Untold Story"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEB_Wwe-uBM

If I could be bothered ...

it would be interesting to know who is on this committee and what each member's interests are.

I just do not believe this kind of hysteria. This wonderful, perspicacious Conservative-liberal government has been in office for a couple of years now: they are still blaming Labour, trying to dismantle anything to do with renewables, giving oil and gas revenues to private enterprise, otherwise known as American corporations and, guess what, have only just realised that in about a year GB will have an energy problem. Or is this perhaps because it was assumed that there would be b- all industry or business left to need energy and who cares for the population anyway? They do not give backhanders, directorships, speaking tours and all paid trips abroad.

As for all this claim about USA coining it in with fracking: that must explain why its monetary position is even worse than Britain's and it can not afford to weather-proof its buildings or persuade republicans that it can afford to provide medical treatment to the 40 million plus without adequate or any insurance.

Then, how about our near neighbours, like Holland, Germany, France, Scandinavia: is there some odd suggestion that they have a totally different geology and so much better economies and energy supplies that frackable energy sources are not needed so urgently or perhaps at all?

No. These are the same people who say we must help builders by carpeting every centimetre of Britain with houses and shopping centres or that we should be grateful to USA companies for buying and asset-stripping what research and manufacturing remains.

Question time

> The lords ... stating there is actually "little hard evidence of public opinion" one way or another on fracking

The answer you'll get as "public opinion" depends totally on the question you ask:

Do you want to see gas companies drilling in areas of outstanding natural beauty? or:

Do you think we should be doing something to keep electricity prices down and make sure we don't run out of natural gas?

In more than one place I've worked it has been very, very difficult to get changes approved. So hard in fact that it was often easier (and sometimes quicker) to let a failure occur and then have a "whatever it takes" emergency change rushed through to get the failed system back up and working again. In relation to fracking, I would be less than surprised if all the naysayers changed their attitudes in an instant if the lights went out.

Maybe that's the time to ask the question.

>bodies of hyperthermic OAP's pile up in the streets this (and every other) Winter

I'd heard of AGW (*), but is it really going to get this extreme?

Or did you just not check a dictionary before typing 'hyperthermic'?

(*) Quite a well-known concept, outside ElReg Science Corner. (Where the difference between 'hypo' and 'hyper' is also understood).

Choice quote

> Prof Helm described UK energy policy as "a slow motion car crash".

Hear, hear!

Get Fracking !

As an Indian energy minister once said "There is no power more expensive than no power"

All the wasted energy put into wind and solar (solar in the UK FFS !) has left this country dangerously close to 1970s blackouts. I really do wonder sometimes if this country is run by vegan flip flop wearing morris dancers.

What a surprise: "Economic Affairs Committee" prefers...

...cheap energy over everything else and criticizes reports that rather want to factor in environmental protection arguments... credible and unbiased opinion, as always, ehh?.

The British Geological Survey estimates Bowland shale resources to be about 1,300 trillion Cu/ft. let me see here..a house of commons report (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmenergy/795/79506.htm#a5) gives 20 trillion Cu/ft as good for about 5 years current consumption..Hmm.

Anyway:

http://www.nohotair.co.uk/images/stories/Reports/downloads/uk%20shale%20gas_where%20are%20we%20now.pdf

http://www.nohotair.co.uk/index.php/library

It matters not how much is down there. It will still run out. Not if, just when.

Estimates of reserves are one thing. Getting it out is another entirely.

Ultimately we're just putting off the ugly facts none of us want to face or pay for. NIMLs. Not in my lifetimers. Or SEPs....

And when its gone, who clears up ? In the North Sea I believe us tax payers are shelling out big time on rig decommissiong after the 'owners' were a tad careless, hoovered up the oil, and strangely went bust. Or were so poor they need massive subsidies and tax relief to do it.

Hmmmmm. Where did all that cash go ?

And as pointed out above by our NA cousins, there are other costs as well. Buy water is a good plan :-)

I believe I read some while ago it costs about 1 barrel of oil in energy for every 5 extracted in the Gulf, compared to 3 for 5 with shale. Not sure if that is right but certainly energy will still have a higher cost than we've used too.

Either way, burning stuff and chucking the remains in the air can't be that good, whatever you use for the fire. (Having lived 45 years next door to a nuclear station I'd rather those in the short term)

Ah well. Guess it keeps people warm and happy and that buys votes.

No, it won't look ever look like rural Albania, they have nice weather, food, culture and things :P

reliant on Russian gas?

Since when have we been reliant on Russian gas? We even got all smug a few years back when Russia and Ukraine had a spat which resulted in the Russian gas supply being turned off precisely because we AREN'T reliant on it ...

Energy Policy

You mean they have one? I thought, by the actions over the last 20 years that we didn't.

Fuckwits

Prof Helm described UK energy policy as "a slow motion car crash".

WELL THANKS ALOT GOVERNMENT !!!!

its not hard to read a fucking bar chart with electricity usage increasing and electricity supply staying steady !!!

Oh wait no you knew this was happening so your prolly running round like mad chickens buying up stock and lands ready to sell when they hit a premium price.

And the idiots actually want me to vote???????? I mean really they actually want my vote saying I "Want" you in power ?!?!

Where's guy fawkes when you need him.

Meh

The only problem I can see with the UK fracking is our gas must be sold on the european market. So we dont get cheaper gas, we are not really independent and our gov will spend the money on whatever bribes they can offer the voter no matter who is in power. The only exception I can see is UKIP who would tell the EU to sod off and have already stated they would protect the profits and save/invest as Norway did with its oil revenue.

Long term fracking

The article states "So far only tentative exploratory work to research the quality of the shale formations has taken place in the UK"

But this link shows at least one site - Elswick - operating for decades:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-26271662

I believe that was previously owned by British Gas. I wonder where the protesters were in 1993?

Short-termism

Instead of using someone else's technology to extract a limited fossil fuel which is bad for the environment, we should be developing next-gen nuclear (thorium?) technology that we can then sell to the rest of the world.

Society is only three square meals from anarchy & revolution

When the Infrastructure which supplies the country with food & water stops because the energy fails, then expect catastrophic long term socio-economic consequences.

Maybe those in charge are orchestrating this situation, so that they can make money off the subsequent stock market crashes and collapse of society in the process.

I foresee a two-tier society in future - those with sufficient wealth for independent generation & access to power, and those without. Those of us old enough to remember the 1970's recall rolling power black outs, and that was back in the day when the economy was less reliant on technology

This is not an imagined Dystopian future - this is a likely reality, caused by short-term, narrow-minded incompetence on the part of those in Government.

If we have no power - everything else stops.