THE founder of the controversial shale-gas explorer Cuadrilla Resources wants to hand towns and villages billions of pounds from fracking what he calls “the people’s gas”.

In his first interview in Britain, Allan Campbell, the Australian behind Cuadrilla, claimed his company has discovered “another North Sea”, but bemoaned the lack of political will to develop it.

“I’ve got a great admiration and fondness for this country from whence my ancestors came, but the regulatory and planning system here is just bullshit,” he said.

“There is no leadership, there is no oomph.”

The company claims to have discovered 200 trillion cubic feet of gas thousands of feet underground in Lancashire — sufficient to meet typical British demand for more than 50 years — but has been hamstrung by mounting opposition to fracking.

David Fuller's view

Here is a link to a PDF of the article quoted above. 

fFor all the warnings and scare stories, how many fracking disasters from water table pollution to earthquakes and widespread desecration of the land are we hearing about in the USA today?  Very few and the benefits of fracking considerably outweigh the risks. 

The UK has extensive resources of shale gas and oil, extending from Cornwall to Scotland.  The development of this valuable resource would transform the UK economy, and obviously not just in the south. 

There is a political problem for the Conservative led government because it dare not offend anyone during the countdown to the next election which has to occur by 7 May 2015.  On current evidence the delays in fracking mean that it is unlikely to be lowering the UK’s energy costs by that date.  What a pity.