FT: Whiff of panic over Britain’s fracking policy

David Cameron’s energy policy has hardly been a model of strategic clarity. But his government has at least been consistent in its enthusiasm for shale gas. Britain’s prime minister promised several years ago to “go all out” to extract the country’s trapped resources of shale. Even the Liberal Democrats, normally cautious about any initiative that might upset environmentalists, have supported the push for hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

Not that Westminster’s goodwill has been worth much in the field. There, the sceptics have consistently had the better of the argument. Exploratory drilling sites, such as at Balcombe in 2013, have been abandoned in the face of protests against an industry still seen as dirty, noisy and dangerous. MORE