Tuesday 9 October 2012

Shale Gas - yeah!

At last George Osborne has grabbed hold of those pesky Liberal Democrats and given them a good shaking, As the ever insightful Nick Drew has been writing here of late, there is something seriously amiss with UK Energy policy - that something is, err, energy.

For with Nukes closing, Coal too expensive under emissions schemes and renewable both fantastically expensive and unreliable, a worrisome situation was emerging.

On the other hand, presented to us was a solution. Shale Gas exists in large quantities and although more expensive to produce than normal gas, with some more environmental challenges too, it is much cleaner than coal and plugs straight into a redundant grid with many Gas power stations already in mothball.

So by announcing yesterday tax breaks yesterday we are at last moving forward with a solution to our self-created energy problem. Of course it is not just an energy shortage which is the issue. In the long-term, relying on expensive oil and nuclear will hammer our manufacturing competitiveness as input price inflation eats away at the competitiveness of products. Countries reliant on oil are going to find themselves mashed by the low price of US goods given their lower energy intensity production costs. So goodbye Japan and Germany in the medium-term - closing your nukes and having no alternatives ready and Goodbye France for deciding not to exploit shale.

At last, signs of a decent policy ahead, let's hope Ed Davey and the Liberal Democrats see sense and realise that the lights gong out is not something we want to contemplate and that a dash for gas is the most environmentally friendly option open to us.

10 comments:

Mark Wadsworth said...

Well, nukes are actually quite cheap, but hooray for shale gas anyway.

James Higham said...

Well, that and Chris Grayling's thing on killing intruders are the first conservative moves I've seen in a long while, if you don't count the ridiculous interpretation of austerity Osbameron have.

Bill Quango MP said...

Uh? Where has our blog one? I can never ind it.

Bill Quango MP said...

Curse this iPad spellcheck.

James. Where has your blog moved? Link please.

Demetrius said...

We could all use a lot less, if we tried. But that would never do.

Blue Eyes said...

A nice little bit of rebalancing towards The North too.

My BTL landlord friends in Blackpool will be pleased!

CityUnslicker said...

MW - no way are nukes cheap the decommisioning costs are almost incalculable. Operating and building costs look not too bad, but the afterparty, yikes.

Dick the Prick said...

If the actuaries get to work on real estate values in Blackpool then I reckon some of the locals would be happy to chat. The greenies are talking shite if they never visited there. Decent price and a fair bit of testing and some jobs to boot - let's ask the natives. Good on Georgie Boy - BP just flogged the Texas thing, cheaper to test at home and get it right first time.

Electro-Kevin said...

Plus it shoves it right up the Lefties.

I'm all for that.

Let's bring it on.

Fanny Bygaslight said...

We shale not, we shale not be moved....

or


We shale overcome some day...

Decisions decisions.