The House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee has issued its report on shale gas, concluding that exploration should be encouraged.
...if companies can demonstrate that they can meet the required standards the Government should encourage exploratory shale gas operations to proceed in order to improve current estimates, providing that public concern over environmental impacts is recognised and taken into account.
However, they also conclude that various market-fixing mechanisms should be put in place to ensure that gas is not too successful and note that regulation should be so tight as to prevent any nasty shale gas revolution taking place here (or words to that effect).
I can't see this as doing much to stop the delays within government. Ed Davey seems determined to keep things moving forward as slowly as possible, if at all. He has even chosen to sit on the British Geological Survey report on shale resources, which was due to be published months ago. What possible interest could he have in withholding it we wonder?
Meanwhile the rest of the world moves on, leaving the UK floundering in last place. As an indictment of the UK's rapid descent into banana republic territory, this quote from Nick Grealy quite took the biscuit:
US investors I know who were enthusiastic about [shale gas in] the UK last year recently told me that after all the dither in the UK they’re putting their money in Argentina, where government regulation is considered to be more stable.