As gas and electricity prices go on rising annually by hefty amounts in accordance with green energy policies, the prospect of alternative energy supplies from shale gas is being looked at with increasing urgency – and not just by companies like Chevron.

Earlier this year, for example, the British Geological Survey (BGS) published a report for the Department of Energy and Climate Change which revealed the existence of substantial reserves of shale gas under swathes of Lancashire, West Yorkshire and East Yorkshire.

The areas include Keighley, Silsden, Ilkley, Otley, East Morton, Bingley and Baildon Moor.

One national newspaper declared: “If only ten per cent of the 1,300 trillion cubic feet of that the BGS believes lies under the North of England could be extracted, it would be enough to supply the country with gas for 25 years.”

However, as BGS scientists pointed out, there is a big difference between reserves, which offer a potential supply, and commercially viable resources, which can be extracted by drilling horizontally down into rock formations and pumping in vast quantities of water and chemicals to release the gas molecules.

The BGS report admits there are risks including low-level earth tremors and surface water contamination. Eradicating poor well design and well construction is essential.

“Understanding the risks is a very important step in the design and appraisal process and very strict controls and regulations are in place to reduce the risks to an acceptable level,” the report’s summary states.

For Keith Thomson, the T&A’s environmental columnist, environmental risks associated with fracking outweigh cheaper energy costs to the public. France, which does not have shale gas deposits, Bulgaria and Northern Spain have responded to public apprehension by banning shale gas drilling.

Mr Thomson has often voiced support for regulatory measures that reduce public consumption of gas and electricity, including raising taxes to Scandinavian levels.

He said: “We can cut our domestic energy use in terms of lighting and heating houses very easily in a ten-year period by making houses energy-efficient.

“That means first-class insulation, double-glazing, outer cladding and making them draughtproof. It’s being done in Sweden, Germany, Denmark and Norway. All northern European houses are much more energy-efficient.”

Ideally, Mr Thomson would like to see three developments in the UK:

  • The construction of energy-efficient houses, schools and offices
  • The replacement of all incandescent and fluorescent lighting from public buildings and streets with light emitting diodes (LED). The former, he says, produce more heat than light. Though LEDs are more expensive, they last ten times longer.
  • The re-nationalisation of the gas and electricity industries. Since energy was taken out of public ownership, he says, choice of supplier has been more than mitigated by escalating costs to the consumer.

Bradford-based political analyst Richard North said that, contrary to public apprehension about commercial fracking in Yorkshire, the shale gas industry was still a long way from that – until at least the end of the current decade.

“We’re seven years away before we see the first commercial drilling assuming that test drilling produces the right results. The economics of doing it will be determined by the regulatory environment.

“The European Union, which is locked into an extraordinarily complex web of international agreements, could bring in stringent regulations by next year that will make fracking in Europe economically unviable. It’s by no means certain that Britain will have any shale gas drilling.”

According to EurActiv, a European news site sponsored by the European Commission: “Shale gas companies operating in Europe will soon have to respect a muscular legislative package which the European commission is preparing to publish in December or January.”

The planned EC directive is likely to lay down rules for dealing with risks associated with the venting and flaring of greenhouse gases; seismic disturbances; groundwater contamination; management of water supply and reserves; methane emissions and infrastructure problems caused by heavy industrial activity.

The people of Steeton, Ilkley, Keighley and Baildon anxious about the effect of shale gas test drilling on house prices and the environment can rest easy. If drilling ever happens it won’t be for a long time yet.