Fracking will be good for the businesses who are licensed to carry it out, it will be good for any current politicians who may already, or will in future have links to those corporations who are granted licences, it may prove to be good for local councils who are being offered sweeteners in dividends to grant permissions.

It remains to be seen whether or not individual family's in the UK will benefit from lower fuels costs as the energy providers in the UK will not have direct access to the gas produced but will have to still buy it on the open market and then may or may not pass on those savings or part of those savings to their customers.

Mostly scaremongering I'm afraid.

We should give it a go and find out then shouldn't we!

If we had nothing to lose and everything to gain then yes.

As it happens there are some problems in the USA with fracking and there are no benefits at the moment other than vague politician-speak of cheapness that is never quantified.

When politicians promise things in future then look for the loopholes in their speech and expect them to be lying from the outset - when they don't promise ANYTHING but throw vague hints in the air to see which one flies then you know that they are not committing themselves to anything.

There have been links posted here, on this thread, that illustrate the possible problems. Well done on showing that either you don't bother to read things that challenge your opinion or you don't care.

And to think that there are probably people out there who doesn't think you're just an unimaginative troll.

You are really quite intolerant of other people's opinions aren't you?

Not sure when this would ever be the case? I imagine their were scientific risks when coal mining begun.



Well that is obviously a matter of opinion. One article I have just seen suggests that it is propping up the whole economy. Another suggested benefits are hard to define.

Nonsense.

Post the article then.

What you can't seem to grasp is that they are real environmental and safety concerns, unless these are fully ruled out them it can't go ahead.

I appreciate their are concerns but in my opinion the 'real environmental and safety concerns' have been grossly exaggerated.

It is nearly impossible to be able to do as you say and 'fully rule out' every single concern. There are risks associated with every single activity in every walk of life. It is about minimising those risks and weighing the positives against the negatives. There were obvious risks when it came to coal mining. It still happened.

You may as well say that there are risks in baking a cake so fracking should be ok - the process of fracking is as much akin to baking a cake than it is coal mining.

I hope theres a huge field of shale gas right under your house. And that it falls down as soon as they start drilling.

What real opportunity to reduce fuel costs? Even Cameron has stopped claiming that is the case.

Any gas extracted here can be easily exported so it will end up on the open market and so attract the same price as gas produced elsewhere in Europe or the UK. In the US it is not exported. That is good news for the companies who will profit from its extraction but the consumer will end up seeing little or no difference in the retail price as we will be buying it back form the market.

Your beloved market force in action there.

The only way we would see a significant price drop is if we used the gas produced directly and paid for it at or near cost. You might need a nationalised state run extraction company and Gas industry for that though.



Extraction costs here are also going to be higher than in the US and the British Geological Survey who identified the existance of the deposits in the first place have raised doubts about how much can actually be extracted.

Cameron seems to be basing his "dash for shale gas" on the basis of one biased report produced by the Institute of Directors sponsored by one of the fracking companies.

Interestingly the leader of East Cheshire council, a Tory council, has said there won't be any fracking in East Cheshire. I bet Osborne is pleased.

I think it would be great if we had another source of cheap energy but it's not going to be cheap and there are alot of risks associated with its extraction. Cameron is risking entrenching opposition to it by being to pushy IMO. Apparantly the UK and several other EU contries got proposed regulations relating to its safe extraction thrown out. Hardly going to convince people its own government is looking after their interests.

So no link to said article.

Two genuine questions. What do you do for a living and how much do you think a life is worth?

No. I'm intolerant of stupidity.

And when you claim that there are no problems, ignoring evidence to the contrary even when it's been posted in this thread, then that's stupidity.

Find some factual basis to counter the evidence presented, by all means, but don't just try and prentend it doesn't exist, even when it's been put under your nose. That's stupidity.

Good job I haven't done that then. Maybe try and actually read what is written.

You've pretended that the scale of what is already known is minor.

That, given the evidence, is patently stupid.

Are you going to answer Sheldon's questions?

There is plenty of evidence which counters the scaremongering. You probably know this but as it doesn't support your entrenched opinion you are being obtuse.

I have to go to work now. Unfortunately I cannot spend the whole day 'debating' with you.

So you'll be able to post links to it, then, as well as answering Sheldon's questions?

What's that? You're running away instead?

This person is going to work leave them be ...
I have visions of them driving to work with their brains scrambled by big, bad cyber bullies, not concentrating and before you know it ..... tragedy!
Can you fracking antis live with that?

Thought so ......
lol

Can anyone suggest any possible reasons why HM Gov is so keen on fracking? beats the hell out of me

I think Cameron mistakenly sees it as a get out of jail free card. In the US as the gas is not put on the open market and has resulted in much cheaper retail prices it has had a pretty big effect on the economy. I think Cameron is hoping for a similar effect here which would after all absolve him and his government from actually directly stimulating the economy in sensible ways. He can just sit back and let it all happen.

Or to put it simply I think Cameron is blinded by that I.O.D report and thinks we are on for another North Sea Oil bonanza. Which if true shows he is a bit thick!

Or a third alternative, which would explain the graphic FA posted, and many other policies – is the simple greed of individuals in government and their friends.

I deeply dislike the phrase 'class war' (it's a cliché that does nothing to forward genuine debates), but when you look at this lot, who supports them and what they're doing, it's rather hard not to see it in those terms. Or at least, if the aim is not that, then the effect is a massive attack on anyone who happens to be 'lower' in society than them and the aforementioned friends.

I see that Ajw71 is back, so I'm sure he/she will be providing us with the links and answers ASAP.

Interestingly the leader of Cheshire East Council also failed to mention the many solution mined salt cavities across (South) Cheshire now used by some of the energy giants to store 'traded' natural gas.

I doubt the cavity operators would be impressed by other organisations fracking and releasing gas from their underground stores.

Given the top-tier COMAH status of these facilities I don't think that fracking would have been given the go ahead in these areas anyway so it was probably worth his while scoring a point.