The Ukrainian crisis certainly seems to be concentrating some politicians' minds on the subject of shale gas.
The US, awash with cheap hydrocarbons, is immune to Russian threats to switch off the gas supply. European countries have to play a much more cautious game. The result, according to this article in the New York Times, is that there is now huge pressure in America to speed up the development of export facilities. This will all be too late for the Ukrainians of course, but political strategists at least hope to curb Putin's ambitions in future.
What effect the new political reality will have within David Cameron's cabinet is anyone's guess. The Liberal Democrats have an interesting political calculation to make. A core-vote strategy will see them stick to their "dead-slow" strategy on shale, but this will make them look so entirely divorced from the geopolitical reality that their credibility as a party will be at an end.