The wonderful world of fracking

[David Johnson]

Have to say I was a tad amused at all the opposition that was given to the drilling for shale gas in Balcombe, West Sussex. The current MP, Tory Francis Maude has been remarkably quiet about the kerfuffle.

Fellow Tory, the peer Lord Howell weighed in with a suggestion that fracking would be better done in the desolate areas of the North East. Only the noble peer has got his map back to front and he meant the North West. In short, the good Tory voters of the south east should be protected from this nasty fracking, whilst those unemployed scroungers that litter the north west can get fucked.

And those of you who think, well there is no real evidence that fracking can be harmful, here is a tasty snippet.

The Hallowich family in Pennsylvania and Range Resources, a leading player in shale gas exploration reached a settlement in 2011 to the tune of $750,000 after the family had accused the gas company of destroying their 10 acre farm and putting their children's health at risk.

Not heard this before? Well as a condition of the settlement there was a gagging order (only recently uncovered) by which the family including their 10 and 7 year old children could never discuss fracking. No discussion, no problem.

Nice!

[Gentleman]

I'm all for fracking if it involves trucking it all over the Tory heartlands where the rest of their vile dogma never normally touches the inhabitants.

Gotta love the idea of the tax incentives for all those who have given generously to the parties coffers.

[cockneygeezer2009]

"The Hallowich family in Pennsylvania and Range Resources, a leading player in shale gas exploration reached a settlement in 2011 to the tune of $750,000 after the family had accused the gas company of destroying their 10 acre farm and putting their children's health at risk".
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
No wonder all these anti fracking protesters are telling fracking companies to frack off.

[David Johnson]

Of course, as part of the payoff, the legal agreement states that there is no evidence that the family was affected by the shale gas development.

How kind of them then to fork out $750,000 out of the goodness of their hearts. Who said corporates in the oil and gas industry can be a bit deceitful?

And of course, if the family tried to describe their side of the story, they would have their arses sued off them by the company's lawyers.

[Bob Singleton]

Interesting bit in the current issue of Private Eye (out today!!!)

The people of Balcombe were apparently told many years ago, but did nothing about it... or were they informed?

Certainly the Parish council (one of whose members will get tens of thousands from this exploratory drilling) were informed and asked if there were objections. While a leading member of the Parish Council says it was discussed, the minutes show otherwise, and so the drilling has now started, just a month before the licence expires.

While oil companies continue to search for non-renewable energy sources, the amount ploughed into "greener" energy resources (such as hydrogen) will continue to be stifled.

[David Johnson]

I suspect this story is replicated in many parts of the country where planning permission has been granted without the local inhabitants outside the council realising.

I suspect that after all the publicity recently this situation is unlikely to continue.

However, one of the strands of Tory reform is to "simplify the planning process" and to make yes to planning permission the default setting i.e. taking the decision away from councils and these pesky protestors.

[william]

There is one thing about fracking that seems to be good - the amount of reserves that we have would enable us to give the middle east the bird and tell em to frack off....

[David Johnson]

Well, talking about reserves is one thing. Getting the gas out safely, cheaply and in an environmentally friendly way is another.

Fracking in the Fylde Coast near Blackpool started in 2010, I think.

Total amount of shale gas extracted by fracking so far?

00000000

[Bob Singleton]

william wrote:

> There is one thing about fracking that seems to be good - the
> amount of reserves that we have would enable us to give the
> middle east the bird and tell em to frack off....


Wind farms are being paid NOT to produce energy at certain times because we can't cope with the excess (yet our energy bills continue to rise... strange I always thought supply and demand regulated prices in a free economy. Maybe it's because energy production and distribution is a monopolistic cartel that they can get away with continually increasing costs to the consumer, no matter the costs to the producer)

Before we spend money on fracking, how about improving our infrastructure and storage capacity?

[william]

The electricity grid controls the prices - if you can get away from centralised production and go back to localised production and have firms do this and reap the benefits then they will - fracking does this as it provides a more localised source of energy.

you could have a power station near to the load centre and cut out the distribution costs - this was what wind power was meant to do but cant as the power is sporadic to manage where as a nice base load provided by fracking would fit this demand nicely.....