The Shale Shill Stalls

Back on May 20 in his Maily Telegraph blog, James “Saviour of Western civilisation” Delingpole gushed excitedly about all the wonderful new energy sources that were about to make all those rotten leftie eco-loons look very silly indeed. Apart from shale gas, about which he has pontificated for some time, there was also methane hydrate. What was not to like?

Well, on the subject of shale gas, there was plenty not to like, and as Del Boy happily typed away, the first UK manifestation of this extractive technology was already giving problems, following the commencement of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, at a site near Blackpool at the end of March.

Four days later, on April 1, there was a 2.2 magnitude earthquake in the area close to the Fylde coast. But then, this part of the world experiences small quakes several times a year, so the fracking continued. But on May 28, there was another, although smaller, tremor, and fracking has now been suspended.

One reason for the suspension is that both earthquakes shared a “similar location and mechanism”, according to the British Geological Survey (BGS). No comment has yet come from the national press, or indeed from Delingpole, who will be relieved to know that the part of the world where he lives is not, as far as is known, sitting above gas bearing shale.

Earthquakes following on from the fracking process are not news for those who have followed events in the USA, but somehow those like Del Boy who want to see more shale gas extraction in the UK manage to miss this downside to their supposedly clean and cheap energy revolution (recent back story HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE).

So, to fill the gap in their knowledge, I’ll be checking back on this story and posting again when there is more news. Because the James Delingpoles of this world will not be.