Telegraph: David Cameron was wrong to raise public's hopes on fracking, says energy expert
David Cameron was wrong to raise the public's hopes that fracking could lead to a significant fall in energy bills, one of the UK's leading experts in the field has warned.
Professor Jim Watson, research director at the UK Energy Research Centre and professor of energy policy at the University of Sussex, said: "Don't expect the kind of prices the US has got any time soon."
He said he was "tired of advocates saying it's going to transform our economy tomorrow", based on "inappropriately used" comparisons with fracking in the US.
Prof Watson also said the coalition government is causing confusion for the public and investors by "trying to run two energy policies at the same time".
He said the Tories and Liberal Democrats are "moving in completely different directions" on energy and joked that he pitied civil servants having to work around the differences. Prof Watson's comments, in a public lecture at the University of Sussex on Wednesday evening, come as energy prices continue to dominate the political agenda in Westminster. MORE