More on the next big energy source

No apologies for returning to the coming bonanza of shale gas, with a piece on GWPF suggesting that amazingly Mr Huhne is not enthusiastically embracing it, even though

In July 2010 Cuadrilla ... announced the discovery of significant British shale gas deposits in Bowland Shale, which stretches from Preston, Lancashire to the Irish Sea. Early assessments suggest sufficient gas to provide up to 5 to 10% of national gas needs. Later in the year, IGas Energy reported that the rocks beneath the Wirral area alone could yield up to two trillion cubic feet of shale gas – enough to supply all 26 million homes in Britain for three years.

The irrelevantly named No Hot Air consultancy recently presented at a conference (presentation here); as one attender said:

The presenter is a major bull of shale gas - not just in the US, but also Poland, Argentina, India, China & Austalia. He believes that current US gas prices have further to fall & that given global shale gas potential he was of the opinion that a future problem will be finding sufficient demand for likely future gas production. The presenter thought it nuts (my conclusion) to be spending upward of £100 billion sticking windmills in the North Sea & was similarly unimpressed with the renewed interest in nuclear. His logic was that simply replacing coal powered power plants with gas fired plant would slash CO2 emissions globally, at little cost. He was also of the opinion that electric cars were a foolish fad & that GTL was the way forward for transport.

A rational government would be trumpeting this. But then we have Huhne and greenboy.