Let’s get fracking

Energy security, rather than climate change, is now dominating Europe’s energy agenda due to events in the Ukraine.

The European Commission was told to find a way, within three months, to cut dependence on Russian gas and to put on hold targets for carbon dioxide emission reduction.

Michael Fallon, Britain’s Energy Minister, said President Vladimir Putin’s intervention in the Ukraine demonstrated why Britain had to reduce its dependence on gas imports from “unstable” regions, such as Russia.

US exports of gas and European development of shale gas will be prominent on the agenda at the EU-US summit in Brussels.

William Hague, Britain’s Foreign Secretary, has argued that Europe must push ahead with fracking to reduce EU dependence on Russian gas.

Germany’s energy security is already significantly compromised by dependence on Russian gas. European governments are at last waking up to the reality that expensive and intermittent electricity from wind farms has failed to prevent an ever increasing dependence on gas imports to keep the lights on.

Europe must immediately stifle the rantings of the green zealots and the anti-fracking rent-a-mob and push ahead with getting Europe’s abundant shale gas out of the ground.

Clark Cross

Springfield Road

Linlithgow