by Trevor Loveday
UK industry chiefs and engineers this week weighed in with support for the role of gas in securing energy supplies and backed the controversial extraction of shale gas by hydraulic fracturing.
In separate reports, the Institute of Directors (IoD) and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) said UK shale gas could reduce the need for costly imports for more than a century and create tens of thousands of jobs. Environmental campaigners maintained a call on government to reject shale gas as running counter to international commitments to sustainable development.
According to the IoD, domestic reserves of shale gas could meet 10 per cent of UK gas demand, thereby “preventing the expected rise in costly gas imports”. Dan Lewis, energy policy adviser at the IoD and co-author of the report, said: “Shale gas has huge potential benefits for the UK, both economically and environmentally.”
The IMechE estimated shale gas could make a “helpful contribution to the UK’s energy security for the next two centuries”. But Tim Fox, the institution’s head of energy and environment, warned that shale gas was “unlikely to have a major impact on energy prices”. He added: “A general overreliance on gas will render the UK a hostage to volatile global energy markets, with or without UK shale gas.”
In another report this week, Friends of the Earth said the European Union should “permanently close its doors to unconventional and unwanted fossil fuels like shale gas”. And speaking at the Liberal Democrat conference, Friends of the Earth executive director Andy Atkins said energy secretary Ed Davey “must stand up to a reckless dash for gas that will scupper our climate change targets and lock the economy into spiralling fuel bills for generations to come”.
This article first appeared in Utility Week’s print edition of 28th September 2012.
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