Business Green: The top five reasons why drilling for shale gas is fracking stupid

Balcombe. Who would have thought that this quiet Sussex village would become the ground zero in the critical debate about Britain's future energy strategy?

In this day and age, when some grumble that citizen action is largely confined to voting on Britain's Got Talent, I've found it inspiring to see activists travelling to Balcombe from across the country, being joined by and winning the overwhelming support of traditionally conservative local residents.

But I've also been frustrated by the way a good deal of the media discussion and debate of the last couple of weeks has missed some of the most important reasons why drilling for shale gas, or oil, is wrong.

It was ideologically simplistic of George Osborne and deeply naive of Cuadrilla to think they could simply "cut and paste" the so-called "shale gas revolution" from the United States to the United Kingdom. We live in a totally different geological, economic, industrial, regulatory, political and social context. And yet a lot of our media is currently swallowing the government and industry's shale gas hype without pausing to ask the most basic questions.

So, here, are my top five reasons why I think drilling for shale oil or gas is fracking silly  MORE