Also in Parliament yesterday, we had David Cameron's appearance before the Commons Liaison Committee, a body composed of the chairmen of all the select committees. Being mostly party placemen, the views expressed were pretty conventional, and indeed one could have mistaken it for a convention of greens. Tim Yeo questioned Cameron on climate matters at 17:01, but this was just two greens comparing notes on the climate consensus. Later on (17:33) David TC Davies expressed a desire to discuss climate issues a bit further but said that he might get into trouble if he did so.
The interesting bit came when shale was raised (17:33). This was mostly in a rather superficial way, except for the bit where Cameron explained that he felt we had the correct regulatory regime in place:
We have a very tough set of environmental permissions and permits...I don't think we need to add to that. I think what we should do is allow this industry develop within the very clear framework of environmental rules and regulations and planning that has to take place now...we've got the rules in place, now let this industry have a chance to develop.
Yesterday were heard Chris Wright's explanation of the nature of the shale gas entrepreneur and the fact that shale operators need the freedom to try different recipes and techniques in order to work out what combination will get the gas in their particular rocks to flow. He was quite clear that despite the rocks in the UK looking extremely promising, and possibly even better than some in the US, he was not even considering expanding his operations to the UK. It therefore seems crystal clear that the regulatory regime in the UK is woefully inadequate.
And the Prime Minister doesn't even know it.