Fracking Was Ended on a False Pretext and Should Now be Resumed, say Tory MPs

Some of the tremors used to justify the moratorium on shale gas exploration in Britain were “almost imperceptible”, according to the UK regulator. It should be resumed with “the vigour of a national war effort”, Conservative MPs said last night, as an official report cast doubt on evidence cited by ministers to justify the ban. The Telegraph has more.

Days after Boris Johnson warned that Europe was “addicted” to Russian oil and gas, it has emerged that a report commissioned by a UK regulator described some of the tremors used to justify the moratorium on shale gas exploration in Britain as “almost imperceptible”.

The larger tremors cited by ministers when they announced the ban in 2019 affected just tens of buildings with, at the most, “slight non-structural damage“, according to a report commissioned by the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) and finalised after the moratorium was put in place.

The disclosure comes after the Prime Minister acknowledged that there was “merit” in the idea of the temporary “use of hydrocarbons in this country” after MPs pressed him to “look again at fracking”. Sources insisted that he had not changed his mind on the issue, having pushed back against a suggestion by Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Brexit opportunities minister, that the ban should be reversed.

The 2019 moratorium was announced by Andrea Leadsom, then business secretary, in November of that year “on the basis of the disturbance caused to residents living near Cuadrilla’s Preston New Road site in Lancashire” and the “latest scientific analysis” for the OGA.

But several other reports, published months later without fanfare on the OGA’s website, prompted calls last night for the decision to be reversed.

On Saturday night, Steve Baker, the former Brexit minister, said: “There’s a war on which appears to be possible only because Europe is, as the PM said, addicted to Russian gas. While Putin bears responsibility for the ultimate war crime of initiating a war of aggression, everyone who allowed our shale gas to remain in the ground on a false pretence should hang their heads in shame as the Ukrainian people fight and die for their country.

“Boris should immediately stop the concreting in of current shale wells and go for gas with all the vigour of a national war effort, which this very nearly is.

“Our civilisation may depend upon it.”

Worth reading in full.

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stewart
4 years ago

Option A: Energy independence.
Option B: Dependence on Russia and Middle Eastern countries for energy and pretend we can control the temperature of the planet like a thermostat.

Decisions, decisions….

misslawbore
misslawbore
4 years ago
Reply to  stewart

Easy one if you have your head screwed on right

Mumbo Jumbo
4 years ago
Reply to  misslawbore

But those in power seem to have their heads screwed on left.

JeremyP99
4 years ago
Reply to  stewart

Yes, taxing people to change temperature levels is perhaps as stupid as it gets

Username1
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

It’s not stupid at all. You just have to be the tax collector, not the payer.

TheEngineer
TheEngineer
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

Unless the Agenda is to destroy life as we knew it…

VeryLittleHelps
4 years ago
Reply to  stewart

I do not believe the climate change narrative, I also do not believe this one.

I posted this in a previous comment.
What outcome do you hope for from fracking.

  1. Reduced energy costs ?, not likley as the gas will sold at market prices.
  2. Increased energy security ?, it would decrease our reliance on imports slightly for a little while (kicking can down road)

As for enviromental issues, where will all the millions of gallons of water come from and what chemicals are in the fracking liquid ?

Here is a good breakdown of fracking from the London School of Economics.
How much shale gas is there in the UK and what is the status of fracking?

Bolloxed Britannia
Bolloxed Britannia
4 years ago

Christ on a bike, fifty year’s of UK governments packed with nefarious bad actors and ideologues! Anybody heard of energy security? While we’re on the subject, capital industries and the ownership of public utilities….What the actual foook!!!

huxleypiggles
4 years ago

And add to energy security, food security, or a proper, national plan on how we feed our people. We’ve never had one and when a crisis appears the only solution from the Disciples of Davos is “suck it up.”

Username1
4 years ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langeled_pipeline

The energy capacity of the gas pipeline from Norway to Easington is 31.5 GW equivalent – as much as the total electricity supply. This is about 20% of total gas used. Imagine the benefit to the balance of payments if it was produced in Lancashire!
With all the net zero nonsense I’ve come to the conclusion that there are an awful lot of people out there who are actively sabotaging this country.

Vaxtastic
4 years ago
Reply to  Username1

Indeed. It is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid the idea of some kind of masochist suicide death cult behind all this ☠️

An insane energy policy, mass immigration from the third world, decolonisation and the destruction of our famous culture, and of course the rainbow gay tranny jamboree.

I sometimes wonder if there actually is a shadowy group in some board room taking bets to see what nonsense they can inflict that will finally make us waken up; what if we get drag queens to read to kids in libraries? They’ll never stand for that surely?

MrTea
MrTea
4 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

‘the rainbow gay tranny jamboree’

A gay police car will be round yours in 15minutes, with a couple of bi-curious coppers coming around to ‘check your thinking’

watersider
4 years ago
Reply to  MrTea

Did you read what the head of Mi something said/
A numptie called Moore.
Apparently the main difference between Russia and “us” is that we encourage lgbtwsyz whereas the nasty Ruskies don’t tolerate them.
There is a separate department inside Mi6 for diversity, homos, and any other bampot you can think of.
Also they are trying to recruit more foreigners to encourage a more diverse spying network.
I am not making this up – honest.

Username1
4 years ago
Reply to  watersider

Having lived in Russia (Siberia) I can assure you there is no ban on alternative lifestyles. There was a nightclub just across the road and one night there was a drag queen and many women of a homosexual nature there. They just don’t want kids taught the LGB….Z dogma in schools.

karenovirus
4 years ago
Reply to  MrTea

“Rainbow Gay👬 Tranny Jamboree”
🤣
Love it.

karenovirus
4 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

We’ve stood for every other piece of greenery, leftist, pinco nonsense these past few decades.
There does however finally seem to be some backlash, this article amongst it.

We knew that Fracking Was Ended On A False Pretext at the time but did nothing about it.

VeryLittleHelps
4 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

Fracking will not fix the problem by a long way, Steve Baker likely has mates in the industry and stands to make some cash out of this.
MP=Slippery Bastard.

I noticed that investment in the infrastructure of the UK had dwindled to pathetic 20 years ago, now we reap the “benefits” of this neglect. Replacing Fields of crops/livestock with solar panels is just stupid and wind farms are useless.
Innovation in energy production has been seriously underfunded, there are probably only a couple of ways to produce enough energy for the future.

  1. Nuclear Energy, with all it’s nasty waste
  2. Wave power (maybe)

Even coal (not sure what reserves we have) might be an option.
Fracking, I don’t think will help (see my previous comments)

David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

“The Take Down of the West” by the treacherous Psychotic Elitist Leadership who have hijacked our countries and all their institutions – now well underway.

Yes we are the target of this war without bullets – just mRNA jabs (now evidenced as entering our DNA via our liver – just watch those cancer stats rise!).

Not forgetting the destruction of ‘Free Media’ to keep the plebs in their moronic, ignorant darkness!

Joe 90
4 years ago
Reply to  Username1

… there are an awful lot of people out there who are actively sabotaging this country.

There are an awful lot of people out there who are earning big bucks out of this scam too …

SamCam’s father nets £350,000 a year from subsidised wind farm.
David Cameron’s wealthy father-in-law is making almost £350,000 a year from a publicly-subsidised wind farm on his country estate.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2027708/Samantha-Camerons-father-nets-350-000-year-subsidised-wind-farm.html

Rogerborg
4 years ago
Reply to  Username1

This highlights the elephant in the boiler room: the energy required to heat our 29 million mostly old, shoddily built, cold and draughty domestic houses completely dwarfs our total electricity requirements, domestic and industrial.

An optimistic estimate for switching to heat pumps would be that we’ll need 100GW of brand new electrical capacity (<3.5kW per home). More realistically, we’re going to need 200GW, or more. That’s three to six times our current generation capacity.

There is no way that we can produce this from unreliable (“renewable”) sources, even under the most fantastical of scenarios. Never mind the cost (which would be unaffordable), it’s a physical impossibility. There just isn’t enough viable land, and unreliable sources would wear out faster than we could replace them.

10navigator
10navigator
4 years ago
Reply to  Username1

It has been proven, that Russian money part-financed the the anti-fracking campaign. QED.

TheGreenAcres
4 years ago

Build Back Better*

*Your interpretation of ‘better’ may differ from that of the elites.

Vaxtastic
4 years ago
Reply to  TheGreenAcres

You’ll enjoy your pod made from recycled unbelievers and you’ll beg for an extra ration of grasshoppers, pleb 🤡

GlassHalfFull
4 years ago

I have always been against fracking in the past because of all the chemicals it uses which causes air pollution and pollution of our water tables.

However, energy security is paramount and that is why I have always supported increased coal use and now back fracking if enough safety measures are put in place.

JeremyP99
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

.

TurbineFossilNeeds.PNG
JeremyP99
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

.

SolarWaste.jpg
JeremyP99
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

.

Wind&SolarCosts.jpg
JeremyP99
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

and if the planet is warning, how come NH snow extent is GROWING?

NH_Winter-Snow.png
Vaxtastic
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

Excellent stuff. Keep posting. It is precisely these inconvenient facts we need.

JeremyP99
4 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

Thank you. I have an archive of such stuff. I would highly recommend this one site

https://notrickszone.com/

who lists links to sceptical papers from the past decade and more (column on the right had side). The search also good, e.g

https://notrickszone.com/?s=solar

to get articles on solar activity, which more and more (real) scientists believe to be the real main driver of climate. In that we are sinking into a Grand Solar Minimum that some scientists think may be as deep, if not as long lasting as the Maunder Minimum, we now have a real time test of CO2 v Solar Activity.

Some of my regular climate blogs listed below

and for the best summary of climate in the Holocene (which shows, from ice cores in both Greenland and Antarctica that the planet has been cooling for some 7k years, with each warm period within this long term cooling COOLER than the preceding one. This is also the pattern of previous interglacial periods

https://edmhdotme.wordpress.com/2015/06/01/the-holocene-context-for-anthropogenic-global-warming-2/

Capture.PNG
JeremyP99
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

.

6a010536b58035970c0120a75431d3970b.png
JeremyP99
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

.

6a010536b58035970c0128766b00e7970c.jpg
JeremyP99
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

.

GISP-last-10000-years.png
JeremyP99
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

Geological history shows no correlation between CO2 levels and temperature.

542285_494734270578504_1494017143_n.jpg
james1975
james1975
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

Because that’s not how it works. The 3months of winter aren’t impacted by the change in temp as the difference from freezing cold to freezing cold + a little bit is minimal. The impact comes in the Spring when the small increases have their affect on melting snow and new coverage. Coverage in the spring and summer is on a big decline, and overall its dropping – Long-term trend in snow cover in rapid decline (skepticalscience.com)

JeremyP99
4 years ago
Reply to  james1975

skepticalscience.

Right. Hard core CAGW evangelists. There is NOTHING unusual abut the current climate, all aspects of which have been seen before… indeed, see this paper just published. Climate is CYCLICAL. Not linear, and any non-linear, open ended and chaotic system CANNOT be modelled.

https://www.studyfinds.org/modern-europe-climate-14th-centure/

cloud6
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

In the race to electrify our road vehicles, don’t forget the batteries, their mining, production, usage and end of life. Vehicles also use a lot of steel, plastics and water resources.

JeremyP99
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

.

SolarWaste.jpg
JeremyP99
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

.

TurbineBollocks.PNG
JeremyP99
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

.

TurbineCancer.jpg
JeremyP99
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

20 of CO2 emissions (if that sort of thing worries you – it doesn’t worry me) are from the production of cement and concrete. Turbines require vast amounts, and of course the same vast amounts of steel, which cannot be made without coking coal. The whole turbine industry is COMPLETELY reliant on fossil fuel. When turbines can be made using only energy from turbines then renewables may be feasible.

50 years?

TurbineFossilNeeds.PNG
ImpObs
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

one more for your collection Jeremy, they can’t be recycled, so they bury them.

comment image

james1975
james1975
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

I’d agree that the production is reliant on fossil fuels but that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be made to produce electricity, and as they produce 20 times more energy that they took to produce (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096014810900055X), it seems like a good idea.

JeremyP99
4 years ago
Reply to  james1975

So the CO2 footprint for

a) the rare metals mined, with massive pollution
b) the steel needed, with coking coal required to make it
c) enormous amounts of concrete (which poison the land, a speciality of the modern environmentalist movement) and cement (together, 20% of CO2 enissions)

are included in this?

Gonads, frankly.

james1975
james1975
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

Wind turbine energy payback quote – From FullFact “This is incorrect. This text is selectively quoted from an essay written by scientist David Hughes, and published in 2009 in an anthology edited by Thomas Homer-Dixon.

On his blog Mr Homer-Dixon writes: “The poster is fraudulent. I didn’t write the text, the text itself is selectively quoted, and the argument it makes, taken in isolation, is meaningless.”

A 2010 analysis of fifty separate studies found that the average wind turbine, over the course of its operational life, generated 20 times more energy than it took to produce. This level was “favourable” in comparison to fossil fuels, nuclear and solar power.

james1975
james1975
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

The full quote from the book is:
“The concept of net energy must also be applied to renewable sources of energy, such as windmills and photovoltaics. A two-megawatt windmill contains 260 tonnes of steel requiring 170 tonnes of coking coal and 300 tonnes of iron ore, all mined, transported and produced by hydrocarbons. The question is: how long must a windmill generate energy before it creates more energy than it took to build it? At a good wind site, the energy payback day could be in three years or less; in a poor location, energy payback may be never. That is, a windmill could spin until it falls apart and never generate as much energy as was invested in building it.”

186NO
186NO
4 years ago
Reply to  james1975

What dreadfully inconvenient facts for the EcoGreenNetZero loons…

brachiopod
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

That’s the problem with capitalism and competition, yes rare earth mining and processing are highly polluting, but the reason they are is that there are bigger profits to be made by not mining and processing in ways that aren’t highly polluting.
Makes you wonder why politicians have never implemented a serious global wide ‘polluter pays’ tax system…… whaaaaahahaha.

Rogerborg
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

Yes, but that happens half way around the world, so Premiere Johnson (and her husband) can pretend that it isn’t happening.

JeremyP99
4 years ago
Reply to  Rogerborg

Not just them, ALL Greens and evironmentalists are happy to ship the pollution to the Third World. killing Chinese miners with cancer and using child labour in the Congo. We get “clean” energy only if we ignore how it got here.

Greens are totalitarians.

watersider
4 years ago
Reply to  GlassHalfFull

Rediculous!
‘fracking’ does not cause potable water contamination as the water table is thousands of feet above the site.
The main chemicals used in drilling is brine.
You obviously paid too much attention to the green propaganda.

GlassHalfFull
4 years ago
Reply to  watersider

I have studied fracking including a live presentation from the late great Ian R Crane an ex oil industry executive who spent his last breaths campaigning against fracking. https://21stcenturywire.com/2013/10/21/ian-crane-fracking-puts-peoples-fresh-water-supply-at-risk/

JeremyP99
4 years ago
Reply to  Nessimmersion

Worked so well in the USA that their CO2 emissions* dropped significantly.

  • some folks worried by this, I am told.
Nessimmersion
4 years ago
Reply to  GlassHalfFull

Given that the UK does not allow fracking any shallower than a kilometre down & the water table is at most a fifth of that, some.evidence of this alleged air & water pollution would be good, especially considering most of the eeeeevil chemicals are also found in toothpaste.
Goven that the UK does not allow fracking any shallower than a kilometre down & the water table is at most a fifth of that, some.evidence of this alleged air & water pollution would be good, especially considering most of the eeeeevil chemicals are also found in toothpaste.

VeryLittleHelps
4 years ago
Reply to  Nessimmersion

So you are saying fracking is “safe and effective” ?

JeremyP99
4 years ago

As any other fossil fuel. And I assume that you too use them all the time and all the other thousands of household hydrocarbon based products?

VeryLittleHelps
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

Fracking is the process, not the fuel.

Nessimmersion
4 years ago

Any evidence it isn’t apart from those wanting to see the working classes living nasty brutish & short lives.

VeryLittleHelps
4 years ago
Reply to  Nessimmersion

I am working class, all I see is large corporations wanting to enrich themselves with the help of MP’s.
I am sure you believe what you say but in the long run I think you will be proven wrong.

Before you consider your next insult remember this site is called the Daily Sceptic and I am being sceptical.

annicx
4 years ago

Yes.

VeryLittleHelps
4 years ago
Reply to  annicx

Good, they can do it in your back garden then 🙂 .

JeremyP99
4 years ago

Days after Boris Johnson warned that Europe was “addicted” to Russian oil and gas, it has emerged that a report commissioned by a UK regulator described some of the tremors used to justify the moratorium on shale gas exploration in Britain as “almost imperceptible”.

Why? Because idiots like Johnson refuse to go ahead with fracking, and more oil, gas and coal extraction. After all, geological history shows there is NO correlation between temperature and CO2 levels

C02_History.PNG
JeremyP99
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

Indeed, CO2 levels are at the very low end of historic levels – and one should mention that under 250ppm, plant life ends, and life for all but true carnivores (folk like me in other words who don’t eat plants)

mwhite
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

150ppm, The last glacial maximum went as low as 180ppm.

JeremyP99
4 years ago
Reply to  mwhite

Yes. We survived by the skin of our teeth. Remember, co2 concentrations are not uniform over the planet

JeremyP99
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

We could have had it had we not closed down our oil and gas so we had to rely on the latter for gas. Beyond stupid.

Bella Donna
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

We could have cheap energy if we had bought from Russia but we decided to cut our noses off instead.

Rose Madder
4 years ago

GlassHalfFull – frack chemicals passed safety regulations, and we legislated to keep activity below water tables

https://www.netzerowatch.com/content/uploads/2022/02/Restarting-ShaleGas.pdf?mc_cid=d6015f4602&mc_eid=0989555968

MrTea
MrTea
4 years ago

Boris serves the New World Order, his focus is to ‘Build Back Better’ after the covid scam.
This involves impoverishing the little people, the last thing Boris wants is secure, affordable energy sources available to the masses.

NeilofWatford
4 years ago

Maximum pressure to start fracking must be exerted on the Government.
Cheap energy for generations, employment benefits and huge tax revenue.
There is no downside.

TheBluePill
4 years ago
Reply to  NeilofWatford

There is no long term data on the downside, a little bit like another topic of discussion on here. I’d rather stick with what we know – nuclear. And instead of shaking the magic money tree at big pharma, shake it at fusion and tidal research/engineering. That could produce cheap energy forever, rather than for just a few decades.

Nessimmersion
4 years ago
Reply to  TheBluePill

Given that we dont have to spend any taxpayers money on fracking, just get out of their way & stop bureaucratic interference is a sufficient step to allow old people to heat their homes.

Nessimmersion
4 years ago
Reply to  Nessimmersion

Re above Big Green Acolyte comment on no data on the downside of ultra expensive or non existent energy. Au Contraire there certainly is long term data, it was the normal.condition of humanity until the industrial revolution. Lived were nasty brutish & short.

JeremyP99
4 years ago
Reply to  Nessimmersion

Quite. The EcoFascists would like to return us to an Agrarian economy.

Think Game of Thrones. Without the dragons…

brachiopod
4 years ago
Reply to  Nessimmersion

We did try back in the 1980s, The NCB licensed a large US based fracking company to investigate coalbed methane in the UK coalfields.
The success can be seen everywhere today.
What?
You can’t see the wellheads pumping gas into the grid and returning vast profits the the Treasury?
No, neither can I, I wonder why that might be.

Nessimmersion
4 years ago
Reply to  brachiopod

Er, different technologies. Coal bed methane is from coal beds. Fracking is from Gas & oil shales. Do you see the difference? The technology has changed a lot since one company failed 40 years ago. Strange you are so reluctant to let private companies risk their own money to provide us with cheap energy with both coal bed methane & shale fracking, both successfully used elsewhere in the world.

MrTea
MrTea
4 years ago

The Tories hypocrisy really is funny.
Apparently Putin is a super baddie because he has gone into the Ukraine (after the US/EU coup in 2014 ousted the democratically elected leader who favoured Russia but we won’t mention that). So Putin must be sanctioned and punished.

The Saudis have been bombing the snot of of Yemen for years now but they are the good sort of ruthless dictators invading a soverign nation. Our response to the Saudis actions are to sell them more weapons and to let them buy up UK assets and infrastructure.

The Chinese are a brutal dictatorship reported to be conducting a genocide in their own land. UK government response – sell the Chinese as much UK infrastructure as possible and allow the Chinese to buy off UK politicians and Universities etc.

It looks like Putin hasn’t been stuffing enough cash into Tory pockets.

brachiopod
4 years ago
Reply to  brachiopod

Sorry, it appears that Bob Morgan’s cartoon of the hypocrisy on the part of Trudeau, Biden, and Johnson has been censored.

Smelly Melly
4 years ago

Why do Westminster gobshiites think these large projects can be switched on and off with every whim. Instead of having PPE graduates and lawyers packing Westminster, how about having some Engineers with experience in the corridors of power? (Engineers have more sense and intelligence than to get involved with the current pond life).

MrTea
MrTea
4 years ago

The Queen takes about £200 million a year in rent for using her sea bed for offshore windfarms.
The likes of Cameron’s father-in-law make £600 000 a year for hosting an onshore winfarm.
All over the country the landed gentry and making out like bandits from all this wind powered subsidy collecting devices.
Your future is cold and miserable, their future is bright, wealthy and warm

This is what the Tories get out of it, I think the Labour mob are so thick they actually believe the propaganda.

Nessimmersion
4 years ago
Reply to  MrTea

Uniparty, the landowning class, big green big labour, the Scottisch Natzi Party & the Welsh equivalent, al beeb, the guardianista class etc are all united in favour of bird blenders. Identifying the few competitive / free market types who are in favour of cheap energy & heating shows who is actually on the side of Team Rational.

ImpObs
4 years ago

“The Prime Minister acknowledged that there was “merit” in the idea of the temporary “use of hydrocarbons in this country”

As if our energy needs are just a passing phase, does he assume we can replace our energy needs with unicorn piss when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine?

Anyone who has not come to the conclusion the west is being systematically collapsed to benefit the global central banking parasite class is willfully under researched. (Looking at you Toby)

I wonder what more evidence these people need to join the rest of us in seeing the objective reality?

watersider
4 years ago
Reply to  ImpObs

Impobs.
Indeed. The most comprehensive coverage of this is at theconservativetreehouse.com..
Sundance pulls all the strings and the marionettes are exposed.

CovidiotAntiMasker
CovidiotAntiMasker
4 years ago

Paul Homewood has been campaigning against the Green/co2 hoax for donkey’s years.https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2022/02/16/so-shale-gas-doesnt-work-really/

CovidiotAntiMasker
CovidiotAntiMasker
4 years ago

As well as energy security, fracking would also be an important source of revenue to the Exchequer.
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2022/02/26/north-sea-tax-revenues/

Marcus Aurelius knew
4 years ago

Hurrah for Baker and Mogg.

rtj1211
rtj1211
4 years ago

Make sure the regions extracting the gas get 50%+ of the net profits as a Regional Wealth Fund.

brachiopod
4 years ago
Reply to  rtj1211

Nice thought, but 50% of zilch is still zilch. As a geologist I could never understand why the BGS didn’t caveat its wildly optimistic estimation of resources by explaining what turns a resource into a reserve, maybe they did as they are a HMG quango and HMG was keen to sell licenses. In my opinion, based on the experience of those who have been watching the experiences of the shale gas fracking industry in the US – see shalebubble.org , is that there will be a lot spent for very little reward, if any. [The onshore UK has a far more fractured geology than the economic plays in the US]. Frankly it is just another delaying tactic to save government (all shades since Thatcher) from having to admit that they failed to implement a serious energy policy. For what it is worth, if Thatcher had managed the period of natural decline of British Coal to build a fleet of nuclear plants, we would not be in hock to Putin today – but we are and we now need to suck it up and find a reverse ferret excuse for being nice to Putin, because, short of drastically reducing energy demand… Read more »

Nessimmersion
4 years ago
Reply to  brachiopod

Its astonishing how many Big Green enablers are suddenly awfully awfully concerned that shale is a bubble/will never work/ companoes will make a loss providing OAPs with cheap energy.etc etc

https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2022/02/16/so-shale-gas-doesnt-work-really/

VeryLittleHelps
4 years ago
Reply to  Nessimmersion

What outcome do you hope for from fracking.

  1. Reduced energy costs ?, not likley as the gas will sold at market prices.
  2. Increased energy security ?, it would decrease our reliance on imports slightly for a little while (kicking can down road)

As for enviromental issues, where will all the millions of gallons of water come from and what chemicals are in the fracking liquid ?

Nessimmersion
4 years ago

So in your world an increase in supply does not cause a reduction in price, yet if we look around the world at energy prices we see the effect of a reduction in supply. Mmm – what colour is the sky in your world?

VeryLittleHelps
4 years ago
Reply to  Nessimmersion
  1. The sky in my world is a different colour to yours as I am colour blind.
  2. A war between one of the biggest gas producers and the place they want to put a huge pipeline through, is bound to effect the price considerably. The UK producing a piddly amount of gas, much less so.(You do realise we don’t really get gas from Russia, yet still our prices go up)

In both my world and the LSE’s, our fracking would have little to no effect on global gas prices. Fracking companies will sell it us at global prices, so right now it is looking very attractive to them. Hence the upsurge in talk about fracking.

How much shale gas is there in the UK and what is the status of fracking?

Nessimmersion
4 years ago

Jeez, all gas supplies affect the global price, fairly basic economics.
So the loons are unwilling to admit that under Drumpf, fracking allowed the US to become a gas exporter, supply increased 25% & prices halved, but that was all a complete coincidence.
Even the Watermelons acknowledge an increase in energy supply lowers prices:

https://www.ecowatch.com/fracking-guide-2652878482.html

watersider
4 years ago
Reply to  brachiopod

“culling the eaters”now let me think…….. where did I hear that plan before??????

Nessimmersion
4 years ago
Reply to  rtj1211

Er, licensing fees shurely, not profits. Never a good thing to encourage bureacracy to take 50% as a reward for not getting in the way anymore.

peyrole
peyrole
4 years ago

you really couldn’t make this up!
Hawaii is going green as quick as it can. So its closing its last coal plant down this year but its unreliables are not working well so its reliant on oil generation to keep the lights on.
Because of the US Jones Act of 1920 ( mandates cargo ships from one US port to another has to be 75% owned, built, manned etc by US) it cannot get oil or LNG from US mainland. So it buys it from Russia……!!
Unintended consequences.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/02/27/hawaii-grid-operator-slammed-for-buying-russian-oil/

bobthebadger
bobthebadger
4 years ago

The UK is grossly overpopulated and this exacerbates the environmental and security issues we now face. In 1985 the UK was 85% self sufficient in staple foodstuffs with around 52 million citizens. Today we have over 70 million people crammed into these islands and import about 65% of what we eat. Overpopulation means increased demands for energy too and creates pressure to develop the green belt for housing, roads and industry at a time when we desperately need to preserve productive farmland. The biggest driver of population growth is mass immigration. That needs to stop soon if we hope to meet the challenges we face. Fracking could provide large amounts home produced gas in the short term and lessen our dependency on imports. My worry is that this process would lead to the widespread pollution of aquifers. One solution would be to conduct trials for a few years with a limited number of wells in the North West of England. If it was proven safe it fracking would then be licensed on a wider scale. One thing is for sure, renewables will never meet our energy needs here in the UK and the Government has to abandon the insane policy… Read more »

brachiopod
4 years ago
Reply to  bobthebadger

Correction:
We have a large resource of coal, but very little is convertible into reserves.

watersider
4 years ago
Reply to  bobthebadger

“widespread pollution of aquifers” where did you get that nonsense from? Greenpiss?

Dodgy Geezer
Dodgy Geezer
4 years ago

The data used to justify the hyped CO2 warming was similarly imperceptible – in fact, it was well within natural variation. Now, of course, they simply use computer models to lie about possible futures, since the world has refused to warm as they believed it would ….

Rose Madder
4 years ago

One more for JeremyP99

https://www.history-of-geo-and-space-sciences.net/2021-05-26_hgss-2021-1_latest-version-of-the-manuscript.pdf

Pascal Richet looks at last 450,000 years of Vostok ice core. Temperature falls gradually into ice age, co2 stays high for 7,000 years. Temp could not fall if driven by co2. Kill the false co2 link, kill net zero.

David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago

A large number of desperate former Tory voters are putting their trust in Steve Baker… but is he up to it?

What can he deliver to save our “Conservative Voter ” base line principles trashed daily by compliant Globalist Stooge Johnson and his Gang?

It gets darker every day! Do voters even matter any longer when even Jury Trials ate now under threat from Johnson at the same time he plans to sell us out to the Crazy Bill Gates/ WHO ” Vaccinate and Control the World” power grab.
Johnson’s incontinent anti-Russia OTT hysteria has already put £££££ on the cost of the average energy Bill – Johnson tells us it for the “Greater Good”!

Can Johnson even find Ukraine on a map?

So is resuming ‘UK Fracking’ your only answer to our current Johnson Nightmare Mr Baker?

CovidiotAntiMasker
CovidiotAntiMasker
4 years ago
Reply to  David Beaton

Johnson the over privileged mumbo jumbo man child together with the mad delusional Truss. What could possibly go wrong : https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/02/27/uk-foreign-secretary-supports-britons-going-to-ukraine-to-fight-russia/

David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago

Truss – a new low in cabinet intellect and international embarrassment who makes sacked Gavin Williamson look intelligent.

” Far out at sea….not waving but drowning “!

MikeHaseler
4 years ago

Who do you think was funding the anti-fracking protests … it was clearly an oil producing country that didn’t want us to become energy independent. Nothing to do with the environment: just using gullible eco-nutters to make fossil fuel producing countries rich.

Moist Von Lipwig
4 years ago
Reply to  MikeHaseler

Eco-nutters are opposed to all energy anyway.

bowlsman
bowlsman
4 years ago

It’s about time someone spoke up on this. Well done Steve Baker.
It’s a long road to common sense but we can’t give up.
Oh and nuclear should be included. Good clean energy.

TheEngineer
TheEngineer
4 years ago

Boris is clearly one of the enemy within who intends to destroy our lives and country. We need rid, along with those in government who support him, and soon before they inflict more damage.

Moist Von Lipwig
4 years ago
Reply to  TheEngineer

Not ‘Boris’, Kim Jong Johnson, judging by his energy policy and lockdown enthusiasm.

Roger Rogers
Roger Rogers
4 years ago

Wishful thinking, I believe. Judging from the American experience, fracking fails to deliver a long-term solution. The operation is costly both financially and environmentally, and wells have a short life. Southern England is not the Panhandle, not that it did the Americans any good.

Moist Von Lipwig
4 years ago
Reply to  Roger Rogers

Net Zero is only a long-term solution if one’s goal is the eradication of human life, it is primitivism masquerading as science

There is no scientific justification for not fracking.

imp66
imp66
4 years ago

Will the wokerati stand for this? Who gives a flying f…! The insane obsession with Net Zero targets is a road to an unnecessary, expensive and completely misguided road to economic hell. Look what “following the science” has done for us during the last two years…

Human Resource 19510203
Human Resource 19510203
4 years ago

If ever there was a time that enforces on us the absolute need for energy independence this is it. We need to alter our ideas about basic industries, manufacturing and future food security too.