Financial Times: Minister plays down role of shale gas
Ed Davey, the energy secretary, has played down the potential importance of shale gas in the UK's energy mix in a move likely to put him at odds with coalition cabinet colleagues including Owen Paterson, the Conservative party environment secretary.
Mr Paterson has been widely reported to favour the rapid exploitation of UK shale gas, also known as unconventional gas, which is produced by the contentious “fracking” process and has prompted sharp falls in gas prices in the US, the first country to extract shale gas in large quantities.
George Osborne, chancellor, is also keen on a big role for natural gas, which some analysts argue is a cheaper alternative to the costly nuclear and low carbon electricity plants that Mr Davey, a Liberal Democrat, is trying to encourage in the energy bill making its way through parliament.
But in prepared comments to a CBI meeting of senior business executives on Monday night, Mr Davey said he wanted to knock down the “myth” that the bill’s reforms were unnecessary “because a global glut of cheap gas will solve our investment and carbon problems”.