In May this year, Lord David Howell published this short opinion piece on fracking, in the Journal of Energy Security.
He opens by saying that he had recently attended two key meetings, that between them “gathered just about all the expertise in the planet on shale oil and gas and fracking issues.”
And then he summarises the current situation, and lessons learned from the USA, before drawing five conclusions for fracking in the UK.
I’ve summarised his points below, though to be honest his piece is very short and you would likely be better off reading the whole thing here.
And what I think this means for us in Ryedale is:
Remember also that since this article/viewpoint was published,
i) Rather than trying to negotiate, the government has chosen the path of confrontation, seeking to impose fracking via the so called ‘Infrastructure Bill’, currently before the House of Lords.
ii) Third Energy has made planning applications to NYCC to put in place some of the critical infrastructure without which it would not be able to frack.
Current Situation:
Lord Howell makes a number of key points, so succinctly as to make it barely possible to summarise them. You can read them in full here.
He says:
In other words (my words):
Implications for Fracking in the UK:
He then draws five conclusions for fracking in the UK, which he “dearly wants to see economically viable shale gas and oil production go ahead as soon as possible in Britain.” (Notice that he hedges his statement with the words, “economically viable”.)
Summarising again:
My conclusions for Ryedale:
From our point of view here in Ryedale I draw simply four main conclusions from all this:
Remember also that since this article/viewpoint was published,
i) Rather than trying to negotiate, the government has chosen the path of confrontation, seeking to impose fracking via the so called ‘Infrastructure Bill’, currently before the House of Lords.
ii) Third Energy has made planning applications to NYCC to put in place some of the critical infrastructure without which it would not be able to frack.
Comments