Tim Worstall has been pondering the argument over how much fracking Lancashire will affect gas prices, and in particular the Greenpeace argument that it will only bring them down by a few percentage points.
As Tim points out, we've all been missing something here:
Think...about what the basic statement being made here is.
They're actually saying that all gas in Europe, for all European consumers, will be 4% lower as a result of fracking Lancashire. That's 500 million people save 4% of their power bills (yes, the reports do indeed say that electricity will be cheaper as well given the use of gas to generate it).
Let's, very roughly, try to work this out. 500 million people is perhaps 150 million households. A UK duel fuel bill for a household for a year is £1,200 or so I believe. 4% of that is £50. Yes, many estimations in those numbers. But lowering gas prices for all European households thus saves those households some £7,500,000,000 a year. That's real money even when talking about things governmental.
Fracking Lancashire makes the households of Europe £7.5 billion better off.
Per year.