People power has shut the doors on fracking in the UK

System

....
It is unpublished because the first line of it says

This paper is an early draft of an internal document; it is not analytically robust....
The draft paper was intended as a review of existing literature. It includes early, often vague, assumptions which are not supported by appropriate evidence.

Well that is solid evidence in that report then

tberry6686

Why are we even bothering to listen to people who have done so little research into this that they can't even spell fracing (derived from the word fracture, No K).

Fracing is actually very common in this country and has been going on for decades. So far there have been no major issues (that I am aware of) in this country. The US has had some problems - mainly due to badly planned and executed frac jobs.

Generali

I was a supporter of fracing but increasingly have my doubts as I found out more.

Here in Aus a company I won't name were fracing and discovered that once the gas was no longer held under pressure it found natural fractures in the ground and headed up to freedom. This was only discovered due to bubbles appearing in a river.

Of course Co don't want to lose this valuable gas so this is an accident rather than acceptable losses but they admit that they have no idea how to prevent this and no idea whether what goes up can also go down and contaminate ground water. It's a reasonable assumption that contamination of ground water is at least a risk.

patman99

Generali, do you live in NSW by any chance ?.

I only ask as there is a whole town in NSW where the fracing has caused the water supply from the tap to be contaminated with gas, leading to wide-spread increases in illness.
The locals have also reported a large increase in the death-rates of cattle and domestic pets.

Of course, the Co. behind the fracing have denied their operations have had anything to do with it.

Oh, and China will 'take the century' when they finally get thorium reaction to work. This is the next big thing in enery production and had the US scientists who first discovered it not decided to abandon it as it produced nothing that could be used in WMDs, the whole world would now be powered by a safe and (almost) limitless energy source.

Generali

I do live in NSW.

Which town has had its tap water despoiled? I've not heard of this and I'm surprised (and a little embarrassed) that I haven't.

gazter

patman99 wrote: »

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Oh, and China will 'take the century' when they finally get thorium reaction to work. This is the next big thing in enery production and had the US scientists who first discovered it not decided to abandon it as it produced nothing that could be used in WMDs, the whole world would now be powered by a safe and (almost) limitless energy source.

I certainly agree with you that, securing cheap energy is what will make whoever does take the century achieve that goal. We are witnessing the 'next big thing' right now, which is shale gas. The whole consensus about the inevitable demise of the USA as top dog has been thrown on its head.

As for thorium, I dont see why China would be in a better position to get it working, and how on earth if they had, they would be able to keep it a state secret.

Bridgeton_Boy

Thank goodness a council is listening to the people and not big business for a change. Fracking is nothing but a con. In the US many fracking businesses are going bust because it costs more to get the stuff out of the ground than can be bought in the open market. The whole business is a giant ponzie scheme financed on junk bonds which no doubt when the - - - - hits the fan the banks will be expecting tax payers to bail them out (yet again).
If we want a policy that works lets get a proper energy nationwide policy by improving insulation in all homes, give help grants to all households to fit double / triple glazing & solar panels, conserve energy (i.e do we need public buildings all lights blazing at weekend). look at alternatives forms of energy production - why not look again at Hydro electric and wave power. All this would be better than falling for the Fracking con.

michaels

Lizards I tell you, shape-shifting ones from Rothschild, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs....

tberry6686

Thank goodness a council is listening to the people and not big business for a change. Fracking is nothing but a con. In the US many fracking businesses are going bust because it costs more to get the stuff out of the ground than can be bought in the open market. The whole business is a giant ponzie scheme financed on junk bonds which no doubt when the - - - - hits the fan the banks will be expecting tax payers to bail them out (yet again).

You do realise that every oil producing country uses fracing don't you ?
The only reason the oil price is at the present level is due to overproduction due to the massive US shale oil/gas boom of the previous 3-4 years. The oil price is set by a relatively free market, unlike the renewable energy market which is just one big con.

Solar power is the biggest ponzi scheme I can think of. It produces power (at a far higher cost than non renewable production) doesn't work when it is most needed (winter,night time etc) same with Wind power.

Hydro electric is well understood and, in Britain at least, is already exploited to a high degree.

In short, fracing is a very important, and well understood, method of increasing oil/gas production.

zeupater

cepheus wrote: »

No wonder the Government was trying to suppress this report!

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/03/people-power-has-shut-the-doors-on-fracking-in-the-uk?CMP=share_btn_tw

Suppress a report which was abandoned well before being submitted ?? ... I wonder how many even bothered to read the report that the article is based on ( https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/440791/draft-shale-gas-rural-economy-impact-report.pdf ), I just did and it starts thus ....

Draft Shale Gas Rural Economy Impacts paper

Covering Note

[FONT=Arial,Arial][FONT=Arial,Arial]This paper is an early draft of an internal document; it is not analytically robust. Work on it has since been discontinued. [/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=Arial,Arial][FONT=Arial,Arial]The draft paper was intended as a review of existing literature. It includes early, often vague, assumptions which are not supported by appropriate evidence. These were never intended as considered Defra positions or as statements of fact. [/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=Arial,Arial][FONT=Arial,Arial]Containing no new evidence, the paper simply refers to data from overseas studies which cannot be used to predict impacts in the UK with any degree of reliability. The author of the paper was not asked to consider, and did not have an in-depth knowledge of, the UK regulatory framework. [/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=Arial,Arial][FONT=Arial,Arial]In June 2012, the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering report concluded that environmental (and health and safety) risks can be managed effectively in the UK if operational best practices are enforced through regulation. The UK has a rigorous and robust regulatory regime which is fully capable of preventing and managing any risks. [/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=Arial,Arial][FONT=Arial,Arial]This paper has been released further to a Decision Notice issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on 8 June 2015. The ICO accepted that the paper was an incomplete draft. [/FONT] [/FONT]

... poor reporting by the looks of things, simply another case of a newspaper article being driven more by sensationalism & ideology than supportable logic ...

The nearest hydro-fracturing to us (that I'm aware of) is less than a couple of miles away ... to my knowledge, the wells themselves, or the output from the wells, haven't killed (or even caused injury to) anyone yet, even though they literally consume millions of litres of it every week ... (I'm talking drinking water)

To me it seems that a good proportion of the population of this country are resigned to limiting their free-thinking thought processing capacity to a base level similar to that of sheep and as such are simply herded by various groups with some agenda or other with an aim to encourage at least some of them to form/join a vocal minority ..... Shepherd, sheep & "Baaaaaa" come to mind ....

Let's just step back & look at the situation from a distance ... are there any groups which oppose any of the following energy sources ?? .... Nuclear, On shore wind, Off shore wind, coal fired generation, oil fired, Severn barrage, domestic scale (roof mounted) pv, large scale pv farms, biomass crop production, oil extraction, gas extraction, wave power, tidal stream, and on, and on and ....... there's probably some who would even oppose all of the above, so what are we supposed to do, revert to the stone-age ?? ...

HTH
Z