Many Liberal Democrats will, like me, have read with wry amusement the reaction of the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph and some Tory MPs to the local opposition to Cuadrilla drilling in Balcombe in Sussex and the potential of fracking in their area given their previous hysterical support for fracking and shale gas.
Clearly there are a number of groups who are taking the opportunity to mount a vigorous campaign against fracking with, for example, the publication of a map of a “licence to frack” raising fears of fracking taking place across the country. In fact the so called “licence to frack” is nothing of the sort. It is simply where licences have been given for any onshore oil and gas drilling.
Before any actual drilling could occur there would need to be planning applications to the relevant local authority as well as permissions from the Environment Agency, Health and Safety Executive and in the case of fracking DECC as well.
In my view it is important that Liberal Democrats maintain a cautious approach, as Ed Davey has set out. It is right to be cautious about the potential of shale gas production in this country, but being open to exploring what that potential is, as long as concerns about the impact on the environment, water pollution, seismic activity and impact on GHG emissions can be satisfactorily dealt with.
From a position of being largely self sufficient in gas at the turn of the century, with the decline of North Sea gas production the UK faces the prospect of importing over half of its gas needs by the end of this decade. If shale gas can be produced economically in the UK surely it is better to produce more gas domestically rather than ship it in from around the world. Electricity generation accounts for only a quarter of gas consumption so we will continue to be reliant on gas for heating for several decades even under the most optimistic projections for decarbonisation. Our carbon emissions will be no greater using domestic gas than using gas from overseas and we could benefit from substantial tax revenues, investment and jobs.
So what about the concerns about water pollution and earth tremors? These issues were looked at in detail by the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2012 at the request of the Liberal Democrat Secretary of State in DECC and they concluded that with appropriate regulation there were no reasons why these concerns should materialise. In accepting this report Ed Davey made clear that shale gas exploration could only proceed on a cautious basis with these protections and regulations in place.
Many local communities have genuine concerns about the environmental and visual impact of shale gas exploration in their areas. That is why it is important that planning decisions for shale gas exploration and production are made by local authorities, just as they are for other forms of energy generation such as onshore wind. Liberal Democrats in government have been at pains to ensure that as far as practicable similar rules on planning and community benefit apply to shale gas as they do for other energy.
The fact is we do not know what the potential for shale gas production is in this country, but we will not know unless we do exploration to find out. And even if we do that exploration it is very unlikely that there will be any substantial shale gas production this decade. So the debate about shale gas is irrelevant to our urgent need to invest in low carbon electricity generation to meet our renewable energy targets for 2020. That is where our focus should be.
Q and A on some of the most frequently asked questions about shale gas and fracking
* Stephen Gilbert is the Liberal Democrat MP for St Austell & Newquay and was the first MP to propose equal marriage at the Liberal Democrat Party Conference in September 2010.
