Shale gas was always a none starter we are a small densely populated island and there were significant issues extracting this safely (this was alluded too on R4). I'm no expert on this but we need a long term plan a strategy that takes into the next 10, 25 and 50 years.
The main failure of successive governments has been in not replacing and expanding the UK's nuclear generating capacity, which has got to be a long term key part of the low carbon energy mix.
I'm not convinced shale is a non-starter. There are large areas of the country with significant shale gas reserves which could have alleviated the current crisis somewhat if planning authorities had allowed for commercial scale extraction. There are lots of environmental implications but the rules in this country are much more stringent than in the US.
Perhaps look at the Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC ... She did an indepth on fracking in the states with communities suffering over 100 earth tremors / quakes a day . This is just one of them
Perhaps look at the Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC ... She did an indepth on fracking in the states with communities suffering over 100 earth tremors / quakes a day . This is just one of them
Do you have shares in shale gas or own a company that wants to drill for it?I think I remember reading that they didn't bother imposing any strict regulations on pollution and seismic activity in the US whereas it was very tightly controlled here.
No and you're probably right. Just not sure relying on Russian and Qatari gas imports is a better idea than increasing domestic production. Depends on whether the environmental risks of extracting shale gas outweigh the risk of running out.Do you have shares in shale gas or own a company that wants to drill for it?
The UK is never going to drill for shale gas that ship has long sailed.
No and you're probably right. Just not sure relying on Russian and Qatari gas imports is a better idea than increasing domestic production. Depends on whether the environmental risks of extracting shale gas outweigh the risk of running out.
On a typical day 40%-50% of UK electricity is generated using gas compared to 5% in France, with the world average at about 25%. We're probably amongst the most exposed to gas supply issues of any country in the world.
In an ideal world we would have continued to build up nuclear capacity rather than stopping 30 years ago but it would take another 30 years to get back where we should be so we need to do something else alongside building up renewable capacity.
sunlit uplands indeed
What does the gas price do for moving to electric vehicles if electricity is generated by gas?No and you're probably right. Just not sure relying on Russian and Qatari gas imports is a better idea than increasing domestic production. Depends on whether the environmental risks of extracting shale gas outweigh the risk of running out.
On a typical day 40%-50% of UK electricity is generated using gas compared to 5% in France, with the world average at about 25%. We're probably amongst the most exposed to gas supply issues of any country in the world.
In an ideal world we would have continued to build up nuclear capacity rather than stopping 30 years ago but it would take another 30 years to get back where we should be so we need to do something else alongside building up renewable capacity.