Britain Needs Shale Gas Now–Tim Worstall

By Paul Homewood

London, 14 February – As Britain and Europe face the worst energy and security crisis since World War II, a new paper published by Net Zero Watch reviews the arguments for and against shale gas drilling in the UK, and attempts to correct disinformation about the possible effect that it would have on energy prices in the UK.

The paper, by economics writer Tim Worstall, reviews misleading and scaremongering arguments put forward by green activists, including by the environment minister Lord Goldsmith, and concludes that they are almost entirely without foundation.
According to Worstall,

You can tick off the greens’ arguments one by one and they are almost without exception baseless scaremongering. It’s hard to imagine a more benign extractive industry.”

And on the case that a UK shale gas industry would not affect UK energy prices, Worstall says that most commentary on the subject entirely misunderstands the way energy markets work.

Domestic gas production would substitute for imports, which are higher priced because they carry the cost of transportation. So UK consumers would undoubtedly see a big benefit, as would the Treasury, which would receive a huge injection of royalty income at a time when it badly needs it.”

Net Zero Watch director, Dr Benny Peiser said.

As Britain and Europe face the worst energy and security crisis since World War II, Tim Worstall’s paper shows that there are no good reasons not to develop Britain’s enormous shale gas resources.
But it’s not just about the cost-of-living crisis. The government’s failure to develop our shale gas wealth is incentivising Putin’s energy wars and has become a major disaster for national security.
When it comes to shale gas, Boris Johnson has a choice now: He can protect consumers, the economy and national security, or he can continue to protect his green cronies.”

Tim Worstall: Restarting UK Shale Gas (pdf)

One of the issues raised by Tim Worstall is the claim by anti-frackers that “there is not much gas to extract”. As he neatly points out, if this was the case there would be no need to ban fracking, because Cuadrilla would quickly decide to stop wasting their money drilling anyway!

The reality of course is that Cuadrilla are eager to resume their work on the Bowland Shale, and believe the decision by the OGA to seal the wells is a huge mistake. Cuadrilla certainly would not be willing to spend more money if they did not believe the project was economically viable.

Tim Worstall covers this issue in detail, commenting: