Bishop Hill It woz the Sun wot'll win it
Jun 28, 2013 Energy: gas Media The super soaraway Sun has come out in favour of shale gas - big time:
In years to come, yesterday’s announcement of the mind-boggling amounts of shale gas beneath our feet may be seen as a game-changer for Britain.
It is almost impossible to exaggerate how important it could prove for us over the next century.
Just one site has an estimated 1,300 trillion cubic feet of the stuff. That could theoretically supply us for 433 years. Even if we can only extract ten per cent it’ll last half a century.
It would be the biggest site in Europe. Alone it would make the UK a world leader in shale production.
Experts believe there will be other sites too — and far greater reserves off our coasts.
Depending on how much we can extract, shale is potentially bigger for us than North Sea oil.
Reader Comments (19)
That should tip the balance.
Had to happen sometime. Maybe The Sun is more important than all the rest of us put together.
Benny peiser says the same thing, but I guess he doesn't get as much exposure as the Sun (so to speak).
http://www.thegwpf.org/benny-peiser-britain-wins-worlds-biggest-energy-jackpot/
This is important news. The average person in the street is now aware of the issues and the stark choices. They certainly won't vote for more windmills=higher bills=power cuts.
Global Warmists have always underestimated the importance of the Sun!
I'm inclined to agree with bilbaoboy.
We can burble on here— very intelligently, I have no doubt — and I'm sure that we are having an effect albeit in a small way but the tabloid press is of a different order of magnitude and given the amount of indignation The Sun can generate if it feels that government is dragging its feet about something it has thrown its weight behind then there is no knowing what can happen.
I wouldn't even like to bet all that strongly against The Sun coming out for UKIP in two years time if it thought the other idiots weren't acting in what it sees as the British interest.
Does the EU currently, or under future treaty conditions, have any claim over a member state's energy resources? They seem to have a claim on everything else.
The Telegraph says the greens don't like fracking because they don't like prosperity. No wonder the greens do so badly at elections.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100223838/greens-dont-like-fracking-because-they-dont-like-prosperity/
The best bit:
If, as I suspect is likely, this heralds an about-turn on the part of those parts of the media which can still legitimately claim to be opinion molders, this is seriously good and important news.
Cue, inevitably, a frenzy of righteous indignation on the part of the Beeb, Guardian et al over Murdoch's corrupting influence.
But as the Sun's critical decision to back New Labour in 1997 made clear (no less than its withdrawal of support in 2010 did so in the opposite direction), these decisions are not the result of editorial whims. They are calculated, commercial re-positionings intended to reinforce the notion that the paper genuinely reflects the nation's prime concerns. How else, otherwise, could it continue to claim to be in tune with public opinion? The paper's economic future demands nothing less.
If the Sun senses not just a growing resistance to Green tomfoolery and its associated hideous costs but a similar willingness to embrace the overwhelming economic benefits of fracking, the tide has turned in ways that are hard to over-state.
Agouts:
You are quite right. The future of so many companies, including the Sun, is dependent on the wealth of the economy and its readers. Without shale gas, the economy will be in terminable decline under Lib/Lab/Con policies, and so will the Sun.
The next Sun Tabloid headline,
Keep Calm and Get Fracking
"They think it's all over. It is NOW!"
I do think that anyone who gets in the way of fracking will ultimately be run over. It might also be a turning point in the 'should we leave Europe' argument. Before they start looking at it as community property. They couldn't sue us for divorce could they? Can't we just give them back the ring of stars?
I was a very lucky person to sign up for fixed gas and electricity for 5 years until 2015. I'm now hoping the return to market prices won't be a horrible shock, more of a pleasant surprise.
Times and Telegraph have leading articles along the same lines. Puts the Grauniad Indy and Mirror in a difficult spot. Good.
Fracking Hell - that is great news. All the same though the BBC had some enviro-mong wailing about the dangers of fracking to dampen the mood. The Sun will prevail!
Obviously the BBC didnt have much faith in Windmills.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jul/18/bbc.television
How much attention has the BBC paid to the risks of energy shortages? My impression is not very much but perhaps I have missed news bulletins and documentaries in which this issue has been addressed.
Something for Conservative party members to think about. Labour left you with nothing but huge debts at the last election. The later you leave fracking, the more likely you will leave the next government the legacy of gas revenues. How much sweeter to ride rough shod over the Lib Dems and get the goodies flowing just in time for your 2015 election bid against Labour and UKIP... 'cos if you don't they will.
bilbaoboy
"Had to happen sometime. Maybe The Sun is more important than all the rest of us put together."
Post Lord Levison and Hacked Off and Press Curbs maybe its the 4 million ordinary working people struggling in this recession and their families that happily buy The Sun Newspaper every morning that are more important than all us.
Newspapers aren't biased they only represent the interests of their readers after all.
Also in the Sun today:
BLUNDERING weather boffins are to get a new £100million supercomputer to help improve their forecasting. Ministers signed off funding for the powerful Met Office mainframe just weeks after experts predicted a DECADE of washout summers. But that came three years after baffled Brits were told to prepare for scorching summers and long droughts. The hi-tech gadget will be ready for use at Met Office HQ in Exeter, Devon, in two years.
Business Secretary Vince Cable said: “Investing in science keeps the UK at the cutting edge of global innovation.”
Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/politics/4990100/Ministers-approve-100m-Met-Office-weather-machine.html#ixzz2Xi1ScrSv