Is Green Another Word For Insane?

From Benny Peiser's Global Warming Policy Foundation

Britain's Green Madness May Kill Shale Revolution

and Without Shale Gas UK Manufacturing Will Collapse

Today sees the UK Parliament consider an amendment to the Infrastructure Bill that would introduce a moratorium on unconventional gas wells in the UK. To coincide with the vote, the Environmental Audit Committee has produced one of its normal sham reports saying that industrial activity will all end in disaster, based as always on a series of interviews with environmentalists and pretty much nobody else. It's good to know that the views of electrohippies are not being overlooked. I gather that the committee's chairman Joan Whalley has been all over the BBC this morning, no doubt given the usual free pass by the eco-nutters who present programmes for the corporation. --Andrew Montford, Bishop Hill, 26 January 2015

By most estimates, the United Kingdom uses about three trillion cubic feet of natural gas every year. According to the British Geological Survey, there could be somewhere in the region of 1,329 trillion cubic feet of such gas under northern England alone. We would be mad to leave it there. We may be about to be mad. Today, the parliamentary environmental audit committee (EAC) will call for a moratorium on fracking. --The Times, 26 January 2015

Two of Britain’s biggest unions are urging Labour MPs not to support a ban on fracking as ministers signalled more concessions to head off a Commons rebellion. In a letter to Labour MPs, the GMB union said: “It would be premature to rule out the prospect of fracking when we don’t know if the industry is viable and, crucially, when so many of the issues around energy and security of supply remain unresolved.” The Unite union has also written to Labour MPs in the same terms. --Francis Elliott, The Times, 26 January 2015

A committee of MPs has been accused of listening to “ill-informed” green groups instead of scientific evidence, after it called for a ban on fracking for shale gas, citing health and environmental fears. The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) on Monday called for fracking to be put on hold indefinitely, and at a minimum banned in national parks. Eight committee members, including former Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman, have cited this as grounds for a moratorium on fracking, in an amendment to the Infrastructure Bill, due to be debated on Monday. But Government sources dismissed the EAC report as “total rubbish”, while academics criticised the Committee’s findings. --Emily Gosden, The Daily Telegraph, 26 January 2015

INEOS, one of the world’s largest chemical companies, today hit out at the Environmental Audit Committee’s proposal to call a halt to Shale gas development in the UK. The company believes that the EAC has overly focused on the potential risks rather than the benefits of Shale gas extraction. INEOS Director, Tom Crotty, said: “The UK needs Shale gas and we know that INEOS has the skills to safely extract it from the ground without damaging the environment. We have committed to public consultation and to share 6% of the entire revenue from any of our Shale gas wells with the local community. Without Shale gas, UK manufacturing is starting to collapse so we need to kick start the Shale gas industry, not put it on hold”. --Oil & Gas News, 26 January 2015