Fracking for shale gas will cut energy bills, create jobs, and pump money into local communities, the Prime Minister has stated.
“we cannot afford to miss out on fracking”
In an article published in The Telegraph on Sunday, David Cameron waded into the national debate on fracking for shale gas, saying it’s one he is “determined to win”.
In it he claims that fracking is safe, and has the ability to “cut energy bills and create wealth without ruining precious countryside”.
Fracking seems to have multiple benefits – reducing carbon emissions and energy bills simultaneously.
David Cameron’s three main benefits of our nation embracing shale gas:
- It will “drive energy bills down” because we won’t have to import more expensive gas from other countries. Something which has been happening more and more as our gas supply from the north sea has declined.
- It will “create jobs”. 74,000 of them by one estimate, and not just in drilling and associated areas, but in all other industries as well. Lower energy costs means more money to invest in staff and other infrastructure to get your business going.
- It will “bring money to local neighbourhoods” as companies who want to drill for shale gas have promised to pay at least 1% of the profits to local communities.
“We must make the case that fracking is safe” he says, pointing to international evidence (over a million wells have been fracked globally in the last 60 years), combined with the fact that in the UK we have one of the most stringent regulatory and planning systems in the world.
Discussing damage to countryside he adds: “Shale gas pads are relatively small – about the size of a cricket pitch. But more than that, similar types of drilling have been taking place for decades in this country without any real protest. The South Downs National Park remains one of the most beautiful parts of Britain, yet it has been home to conventional oil and gas drilling since the Eighties.”