Thursday 13 December 2012

Fracking Will Be A Great Game

On the capitalist side of the Great Ideological Divide, everyone is salivating at the prospect of the seemingly limitless quantities of shale gas available right under our own green-and-pleasant noses.  George Osborne has at last got the message that we can't go on for long with the USA enjoying wholesale gas prices less than half of those we pay.  The cry has gone up: we don't want to be dependent on Russian gas! (as if we get any gas from Russia) and the tax-breaks will soon be in full swing.

The greenie-left is also looking forward to renewed fracking with much glee.  They have every intention of using it as a delightfully emotive rallying-point against the wicked Tories, and will be developing it into a form of large-scale outdoor relief for the youthful unemployed masses.  If they can cause a week's worth of trouble at a major new gas-fired power plant project under the relatively obscure cry of 'no dash for gas', how much more difficulty can they create for a series of small, isolated drilling sites ?

Yes, the antis are relatively well organised.  It is clear from the little nuggets of sophistry on their website that there are 'intellectuals' involved, and we may expect some well-coordinated rentamob stuff, with academics and lawyers and clever media campaigns, the whole works.  The malicious left has long hankered after harnessing the summer-of-2011 lumpen-nihilism; and as a commenter on these pages suggested some months ago, from the ranks of the unemployed graduates may arise an officer class. Oh, how leftist intellectuals love egging others on to violence.

And on the other side ? How much enthusiasm does PC Plod have for stopping them ?  In the past it would have been the appealing twin prospects of massive overtime plus cracking a few swampie skulls, and and let joy be unconfined. In 2013 I am not so sure.

We should also recognize that Cuadrilla and all the other would-be UK drillas have been truly amateur in their PR efforts to date.  They are of course being used as front-runners by the majors, who will keep well away until the minnows have proven up the geology and the reserves.  Who wants to see their corporate image tarnished ?

Finally, has anyone seen any signs of resolve from our great coalition ?  The nous to parlay dismay at rising heating costs into cheaper energy as a populist cause ?

Because that's what it needs to be.  But I can easily see them blowing it over the next year or so, then bottling it for the election.

At least the gas won't be evaporating any time soon ...

ND 

10 comments:

DtP said...

If you wander over to Inspector Gadget's blog it gets a little despiriting as to the group think of the plod these days. It appears that the slew of criticism they've received over their egregious errors has given rise to a siege mentality - all a bit upsetting, frankly.

But, back on topic, ifcourse we all hope that the reserves can be drilled but I seem to be worried that i'm being bullshitted somewhere along the way. Rawnsley did a bit of hatchet job the other day (link below if anyone's interested) and he's usually got his ear to the ground and ordinarily wouldn't give 2 hoots about issue based politics.

When something's too good to be true etc etc. Fingers crossed though and the greenies can just piss right off. This whole propoganda highlights that their agenda has bugger all to do with sustainable energy and all to do with their preferred methods of sustainable energy which I assume is powering turbines from lentil induced farting. Utter twats. I don't mind proper socialists much (usually good drinkers) but for these gits, whoever they are, to ignore the £500 nicker increase in fuel costs and God alone knows the potential of costs if we revert to inefficient methods then they obviously ignore the people they're supposed to represent - that ain't socialism, that's something a heck of a lot worse.

DtP said...

Whoops

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/09/shale-gas-frackheads-dubious-dream

Timbo614 said...

So from a longish (shortish) planning point of view all this gas will come online shortly after we stop building houses with gas boilers in 2016 ....

@ND I didn't think you would be 'far away' when that news appeared :)

CityUnslicker said...

Shale gas ia a paradigm shift, no wonder the greens are against it. On the other hand DtP, it is a case of all our dreams come true for the capitalists so we too should questionthe veracity of what it may look like. Having said that, the LEAST it can be is a new North Sea, which in an of itsel is a godsend to a Country that has really stuggled with the loss of our petrodollar status.

Demetrius said...

This is familiar historical territory, a state faced with a situation with no right decisions and the need is to choose the least "wrong" one. But this depends on what you see as "wrong". I do not like fracking at all, but if we do not frack then we may not like the consequences and they could be very damaging.

Bill Quango MP said...

Greenies on LBC right now.

"We should ignore gas and concentrate on renewables as this will be very much cheaper than gas."

Electro-Kevin said...

Great.

Only one thing.

Will a new boom do us any good ? Won't it just go to boost the welfare state, mass immigration, indolence, sloth ... ?

We could do with a period of austerity for reasons other than straightening out the economy. We could do with destroying the welfare state and starting again.

Bill Quango MP said...

ND, it ended 10 to 0 in favour of the green lobby.

Fracking is "in the pay of big business who finance the politicians"

"pollutes the water table"
"Causes earthquakes"
"destroys the environment"
"Wind energy will be much cheaper"

The science seems settled already.
No one wants it.

Jim said...

Mark my words, there's nothing more in favour of something than politician who is convinced there is money to be made out of it in taxes. All the arguments against shale gas will pale into insignificance once the politicians get shown the tax revenue they will be forgoing by not giving it the go-ahead. Ironically (given it was Mrs T who benefited from N Sea Oil the most) it will probably be Ed Milliband who reaps the rewards in about 6-7 years time, ready to get another 5 years term in 2019/20 on the back of spending rises plus tax cuts paid for by gas revenues.

Blue Eyes said...

From the BBC article on fracking:

"Mr Davey said the advent of shale gas would not weaken the UK's legally binding targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions. He announced a study from the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) chief scientist David McKay on the impact of shale gas on climate change."

Had a chuckle at that. GDP beats GHG!