“No Easy Answers” in Shale Debate
Mike Childs, head of Science and Policy Research, Friends of the Earth, gave his closing remarks and “reflections” following what turned out to be a lively interaction between industry experts and environmental champions over the two days of the 2011 Shale Gas Environmental Summit in London.
Interestingly, the environmentalist offered a glint of empathy for UK’s embryonic shale industry, particularly when discussing the hurdles that lay ahead.
“I think there is a lot of common ground between the environmentalist groups and the industry in regard to the intense frustrations about how difficult it is to build anything, anywhere.”
The parallels that Childs drew were a reference to the “battles on the ground” his group faced on a daily basis when applying for permission to build wind farms in the UK.
“We face a tremendous amount of opposition that brings whole projects to a halt. We therefore experience many of the same headaches that the shale industry does in the planning stage.”
He pointed out that there are several legitimate local concerns that have to be addressed in the planning stages of any shale gas project, particularly when the UK public reads about the “Wild West approach” that he believes has been taken in the US.
“Notwithstanding, I believe that we have a much better regulatory system and environmental regulations are clearly, much more strongly adhered to across the entire European Union,” he said.
However, Childs says one of the key solutions in abating the opposition to shale gas projects in the UK is to have rational local debate in order to put at ease the minds of those that have been reading the “scare stories” emanating out of the US.
“We need to create an outlet in terms of ground rules – we need to educate the public on issues such as where the water resources are coming from to aid extraction and indeed what the risks are to ground water and local geology.”
Furthermore, he added that the UK should wait for more scientific studies to be published in order to get a true understanding of the dynamics of shale gas exploration before anyone can have a well-reasoned, rational debate.
“Clearly though, as much as we would like to see more wind farms and energy storage projects, there is a role for gas for a considerable amount of time going forward. But the question is: how much gas?” he said.
“This is another massive debating forum. We need to look at the role of shale gas within gas and then gas alongside the role of other fuels. How do we want to produce our energy in the future?”
Childs accepted that his organisation has admitted that gas will have a more important role going forward, especially when considering its potential as a greener alternative to traditional hydrocarbons.
“The challenge is if we don’t utilise this gas going forward, how the hell do we heat our homes or meet our transportation needs? We need to have this debate.”
In his conclusion he said that he believes that the dash for gas is “fantastic” and that it is a marvellous occurrence when looking at it from a climate change perspective.
“But we predominantly have to debate about environmental safety and the actual role that gas will play in our society. One thing is for certain, there are no easy answers going forward – only difficult answers and difficult compromises.”