What Is The Real Concern Of The Beardy Wierdies?

[youngmafbog]

http://news.sky.com/story/1024816/fracking-is-given-go-ahead-by-ministers

So fracking may cause seismic tremors (minor ones no bigger than is normally felt in th eUK). Is this really their concern or is it more because we may be able to kick their beloved windmills into the bin where they belong?

This could be big business to the UK and save us, or at least help us pay the EU tax for Jakes beloved Europe.

[dave50]

They want to close down all industry and put us all out of work.

[rojash]

Not Friday already is it?

[jake-the-peg]

I don't have any problem with it providing a proper risk assessment is done.

I do have a few concerns about doing it out just across from a certain large nuclear facility without a proper risk assessment.

I think Blackpool residents might want concerns about possible accidental pollution incidents addressed too seeing as how much of their economy is based on tourism

Unreasonable I know.

As for windmills well meeting 25% of our domestic needs is valuable in terms of energy security but it's certainly not going to get rid of our need to produce clean energy is it?

BTW - If we're talking on-shore windfarms I'm not a fan - I think most of them are only marginally efficient - wind farms should be large and off-shore IMHO

[magsmay]

well I have first hand knowledge of fracking. While I was in Canada we lived in the countryside and were on well water -pumped up from 300 metres I think. We had a gas well about 400 metres from our home and it was fracked - the day it happened there was an almighty shuidder and all the water in the house stopped -they had done something underground to affect the aquifer and drained our well - $1000's of dollars of their money put it right but we were without any running water for 2 weeks. Any explosions underground should be treated with caution - stop messing with Nature!

[Zeuhl]

Some very valid, reasonable and interesting concerns raised here.

Perhaps the OP could help by identifying which of those contributors is 'beardy' or 'wierdie'

[Coobeastie]

Near the Mendips where they are also considering fracking I'm more concerned about the 500+ chemicals they use in the process leaching into our water supplies.

[LazyGun]

Seems an unnecessarily perjorative term for those people who have concerns over the impact on local housing and the aquifers and the water table.

Ground tremors, even if small, may well have an impact on local infrastructure; The proximity of a well may impact upon house insurance, and there are persistent fears, based upon experiences in the US and Canada, that fracking can adversely impact aquifers and the water table, leading to contaminated drinking water.

In the US, population density is very much lower than in the UK, and they have vast tracts of wilderness in which to explore shale gas/oil deposits, safely away from human habitation. That is not the same as here in the UK.

A recent EPA investigation in the US links the process of frakking with contamination of 11 local drinking water wells in that particular community
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/amall/pavillion_independent_experts.html

There are concerns over the pollution caused by the process of frakking;
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-can-we-cope-with-the-dirty-water-from-fracking-for-natural-gas-and-oil

The need to look at specialised insurance if you are near a fracking well;
http://tomwilber.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/fracking-not-part-of-nationwide.html

And although the ground tremors are likely to be small, at least one magnitude 5 earthquake has happened in the US, and is thought to be due to a proximate fracking operation;
http://pesn.com/2011/11/06/9601949_5.6_Fracking_Earthquake_Hits_Oklahoma/

Such risks should not be lightly dismissed, and there are legitimate grounds to be cautious of such operations....

[pdq1]

Can't the protesters see fracking is a marvellous way of the consumer getting cheap energy. Just look at North Sea Oil and Gas where our bills were reduced substantially.

Its a good job these protesters weren't around when coal mines were introduced. All those canaries killed by the escaping gas!

[douglas9401]

Innit fracking marvellous.

[factor-fiction]

>They want to close down all industry and put us all out of work.

Who are "they", dave50? Do you mean the government or the protestors? If the former, I'm not sure how your assessment follows from the decision to give the 'go ahead' to fracking.

[jomifl]

Any way of continuing to produce carbon dioxide from fossil fuels will contribute to quicker results from the 'great global warming experiment'. Then we can stop if it isnt too late.

[LazyGun]

I am not at all sure that fracking will necessarily produce large savings for the consumer.Given that this method of oil/gas extraction costs more than other extraction procedures, A drop in the unit price of gas will mean that shale gas extraction becomes uneconomic.

As with all of these things, there has to be a dispassionate calculation of risk versus reward, and the protestors have every right to raise concerns about the possible dangers.

[pdq1]

Tongue in cheek LG! We all know the money goes into business profits.

[ludwig]

I think the concerns are those as listed by LG, plus one he didn't cover which is that we don't want frakking great ugly frakking plants all over what little remains of our countryside. The wind farms are bad enough.

It's fair enough somewhere like America where there's plenty of room to site these things miles from anywhere, but on a crowded island like this, earthquakes (however small), water pollution, and environmental impact should be greater concerns.

[EDDIE51]

There was a piece on this on Radio 4 this evening. Because we have to 'pool' gas resources and purchases throughout Europe the UK shale gas will be only 1% of European gas production ( although it could be 20% of UK needs) , it will make no difference at all to prices . We are plumbed into the European gas net work and can not get out of of it . The energy minister was talking b*llocks but is too ignorant to realize it.
Do any of you actually imagine that the energy companies would reduce prices and profits by 20% ! . They give the example of the USA where shale gas has reduced prices , but the USA has no international gas network , what it produces stays in the USA, it is cheaper there because they currently have to import gas as LPG in tankers.

[pdq1]

Strange I thought we had just signed a long term contract with Russia to supply gas and they were about to extend the European pipeline from Germany to UK. Someone is going to be disappointed.

[pdq1]

Somebody must be pleased they haven't signed the contracts yet

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/9366170/BP-considers-Gazprom-gas-pipeline-to-UK.html

[EDDIE51]

Exactly pdq 1, Russia is the main supplier of Europe's gas ( around 90% ). As I said we are part of the European gas network and there is no way out there is a pipeline all the way from Russia to the UK.