The Times: Shale Gas Is Not A Quick Energy Fix, Ed Davey Cautions
Ed Davey, the energy secretary, is to deliver a warning against “hype” that shale gas could revolutionise Britain’s energy supplies. In a speech tomorrow Davey will warn that the country is unlikely to see benefits from shale gas until the next decade, adding: “We can’t bank on shale gas to solve our energy challenges today or this decade.”
The comments will set him at odds with supporters of shale gas, including George Osborne, the chancellor, who believe it has the potential to reduce electricity bills and ensure energy security. [...]
David MacKay, the chief scientist in Davey’s Department of Energy & Climate Change, is writing a report on the potential risk of methane releases from shale gas operations.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas with a far higher global warming potential than carbon dioxide. MacKay is expected to conclude that releases should be minimal provided fracking is tightly regulated.
Davey will say that while shale gas can be developed safely in a way that does not wreck the countryside, “it must not be at the expense of our wider environmental aims” of cutting carbon emissions. “Let’s be cautious about hyperbole on shale. For it will likely be the 2020s before we feel the full benefits,” he will add.
The speech comes ahead of the Liberal Democrat conference which begins next weekend in Glasgow, when the party will discuss taking a cautious approach to shale in its 2015 manifesto.
The party said that “there is no realistic prospect of a shale gas revolution” and added that the gas “should be increasingly confined to heating rather than electricity”.