Government climate change adviser embraces dash for gas
Britain should embrace fracking to provide a secure source of energy without destroying the environment, according to the chairman of the committee on climate change.
Lord Deben, speaking to the Times said:
It just isn't true that fracking is going to destroy the environment and the world is going to come to an end if you frack.
And yet to listen to some people on the green end, that's what they say.
The Conservative peer who served as John Major's environment secretary, said the UK "ought to be worried about the security of our energy supplies."
Lord Deben has been a vocal supporter of green policies and has likened the evidence on climate change to the proof that smoking causes cancer.
The endorsement for fracking comes only a week after George Osborne announced a new tax allowance for companies involved in the extraction of shale gas. Under the new regime taxes on initial profits will be halved. The allowance will save companies roughly 24p for every pound spent on a new project.
Support for fracking has been gathering pace in the wake of the US's plummeting energy prices, while the cost of renewable energy remains high.
However, the argument for fracking has rapidly evolved from a primarily economic argument to an environmental one.
The benefits of fracking to the environment became ever more apparent after last weeks report by the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS). The report found that the widescale use of shale gas could not only slash CO2 emissions, but also cut the levels of the lethal pollutants such as PM2.5.
The authors of the report, Richared Muller and Elizabeth Muller said:
It can be a clean technology, and even though it will not halt global warming, only energy conservation offers a more affordable way to slow it.
Environmentalists should recognise the shale gas revolution as beneficial to society and lend their full support to helping it advance.
Despite advocating for the exploitation of the UK's shale gas reserves, Lord Deben doubts whether it will have an effect on energy prices.