Government Calls for Controlled Fracking, but at What Cost?

The government have called for strict control on fracking due to environmental concerns about the controversial technique, but have given the go-ahead for exploratory hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to extract natural gas from shale-rock deposits. Fracking can damage the wellbeing of the environment though water pollution, and the government’s decision potentially opens the door for a shale gas industry to begin developing in Western Europe.

In Europe, you are increasingly reliant on expensive important gas from Russia and Algeria, and energy and climate change secretary Edward Davey says ‘Shale gas represents a promising new potential resource for the UK’ though this is an early-stage exploration which ‘is likely to develop slowly.’

Though changing to renewable sources is better for the UK’s environmental wellbeing, the wellness of the economy has made businesses put pressure on the government to power generation alongside its large recent commitment to renewable energy as the costs of those sources are steep. Despite opposition from environmentalists, the US pays less for electricity because it has increased its production of shale gas.

Shale gas arguably burns cleaner than coal, and could also help compensate for the decline of oil and gas production in the North Sea, which accounts for a large chunk of the British economy. Davey argues that shale gas ‘could contribute significantly to our energy security, reducing our reliance on imported gas as we move to a low-carbon economy’.

According to Menno Koch, an analyst at Lambert Energy Advisory in London, ‘We now see the U.K. as the front-runner in this story, along with Poland’ but there are those who strongly oppose shale gas, especially in Western Europe. For example, France has banned fracking in spite of having some of the most promising shale oil and gas prospects.

Hydraulic fracturing means that large quantities of fluids are pumped into wells to loosen the rock formations and enable the gas to flow, and the main concerns stem from the fear that the fracking fluids might escape from the wells and pollute drinking water and the surrounding countryside. Much of Western Europe is also densely population, which might not be suitable for the many wells that would be required by the shale gas industry.

Environmental group Greenpeace have called the decision ‘a dangerous fantasy’ as ‘Pinning the UK’s energy hopes on an unsubstantiated, polluting fuel is a massive gamble, and consumers and the climate will end up paying the price’.