Shale is one answer to the U.K.'s energy problem, and it has obviously worked extraordinarily well in America.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
New discoveries and production of resources like shale oil and gas are dramatically altering our energy supply outlook and the entire global geopolitical landscape. And the pace of change - particularly in the past few years - continues to accelerate.
Fracking opens up vast tracts of the U.S. to exploitation by gas drillers. There's enough energy under our feet to last us for decades, maybe centuries.
We have been blessed in many respects with the explosion of the development of shale gas resources here in North America. It's both U.S. and in Canada.
Shale gas has provided the United States the opportunity to have 100 years of supply that is domestically produced. If we are going to develop natural gas from shale, it has to be done in a safe and responsible manner.
I find it interesting that many of the people who want to restrict fossil fuels live in well-developed countries where abundant and affordable energy is readily available.
We need to face it, as a nation we have a reliance on petroleum.
The U.K. is already disadvantaged on the wholesale cost of energy, and then it puts taxes on it. Anybody who's an energy user is just going to disappear.
Shale gas, if left to flourish, could create several hundred thousand more jobs.
Gas is almost a give-away in the U.S. at the moment. They've gone for fracking in a big way. This is what makes me very cross with the greens for trying to knock it... Let's be pragmatic and sensible and get Britain to switch everything to methane. We should be going mad on it.
I'm not sure we could spell 'shale' in 2008.