So the French have said a firm Non to fracking, presumably with a shrug of Gallic indifference.
So not to be denied, Total are here to frack.
The thread of history here is somewhat tortured, snaggled, knotted up like the wires you need to charge all your devices.
I unravel them, plug in, charge, remove said device and when I return to repeat the process the wires are once again wound around each other, for comfort? for relief? or just because they can?
It would seem that they are alive.
We have always found our energy sources beneath our feet.
After my time as a Curate in Hatfield and Dunscroft in the Republic of South Yorkshire, the congregation at Dunscroft gave me a Miner's Lamp.
It has remained as a reminder of the dark and dusty and claustrophobic work that so many of the congregation undertook in Hatfield Main Colliery, often walking miles to the coal face before hacking and shovelling and loading often in darkness, and bent double in the narrow seams.
Deriving energy from the earth is always difficult and dangerous, whether we are chasing peat, natural gas, wood, coal, or oil.
Wind and Solar and tidal sources simply cannot provide what is needed and Hydro Electric, whilst efficient and clean also impacts on the environment.
So if we want energy, we have to dig it out from under the ground we are standing on.
This carries the risk that if we dig deep enough eventually we could fall into the hole we have dug.
Bore holes to the centre of the earth could tap the huge energy beneath our feet, as natural warm hot springs in Iceland or Jules Verne, might suggest.
But if we live in the temperate west, with cold winters and warmer summers, then we will need to heat as well as eat.
The view of fracking has been coloured by the emotion generated.
Water pumped under pressure and the chemicals used, suggest that we could release undesirable consequences not the least, earthquakes and chemical run off.
One strong argument for fracking or Hydraulic Fracturing to release gas from Shale, is energy security, Britain has exported its energy dependency, coal and gas are now almost exclusively imported and as the world becomes more uncertain with events in the Middle East, Europe and former Soviet Countries some form of certainty over how we generate energy is urgently needed.
In the US fracking has changed the economic picture increasingly pointing toward a more sustainable energy future and lowering costs.
So the debate will doubtless go on.
Like the clothing company that played around with its initials, anti frackers have used the alliterative quality of the verb, to frack to make their feelings towards the companies who have acquired the licenses perfectly clear.
And of course the political commitment of the coalition Government raises questions about how much is simply politics and how much are carefully considered energy policy for the future.
But there it is, vegetation from thousands of years ago, created the coal we have relied on and in my family I am aware that two of my grandfathers were Miners before they went to war and one great grandfather died in a pit accident.
In Britain mineral rights belong to the Crown, so a speculator such as the founder of fracking, George P Mitchell cannot as he did in America, amass an enormous personal fortune, the benefits to the Treasury are significant and measured in Billions and the energy reserves will more than compensate for declining reserves in the North Sea.
The first shale gas field has been identified on the Fylde Coast near Blackpool, which has one amazing benefit, whatever the outcome for the future of energy supplies in the UK at least Blackpool will be able to keep its lights on .......
So not to be denied, Total are here to frack.
The thread of history here is somewhat tortured, snaggled, knotted up like the wires you need to charge all your devices.
I unravel them, plug in, charge, remove said device and when I return to repeat the process the wires are once again wound around each other, for comfort? for relief? or just because they can?
It would seem that they are alive.
We have always found our energy sources beneath our feet.
After my time as a Curate in Hatfield and Dunscroft in the Republic of South Yorkshire, the congregation at Dunscroft gave me a Miner's Lamp.
It has remained as a reminder of the dark and dusty and claustrophobic work that so many of the congregation undertook in Hatfield Main Colliery, often walking miles to the coal face before hacking and shovelling and loading often in darkness, and bent double in the narrow seams.
Deriving energy from the earth is always difficult and dangerous, whether we are chasing peat, natural gas, wood, coal, or oil.
Wind and Solar and tidal sources simply cannot provide what is needed and Hydro Electric, whilst efficient and clean also impacts on the environment.
So if we want energy, we have to dig it out from under the ground we are standing on.
This carries the risk that if we dig deep enough eventually we could fall into the hole we have dug.
Bore holes to the centre of the earth could tap the huge energy beneath our feet, as natural warm hot springs in Iceland or Jules Verne, might suggest.
But if we live in the temperate west, with cold winters and warmer summers, then we will need to heat as well as eat.
The view of fracking has been coloured by the emotion generated.
Water pumped under pressure and the chemicals used, suggest that we could release undesirable consequences not the least, earthquakes and chemical run off.
One strong argument for fracking or Hydraulic Fracturing to release gas from Shale, is energy security, Britain has exported its energy dependency, coal and gas are now almost exclusively imported and as the world becomes more uncertain with events in the Middle East, Europe and former Soviet Countries some form of certainty over how we generate energy is urgently needed.
In the US fracking has changed the economic picture increasingly pointing toward a more sustainable energy future and lowering costs.
So the debate will doubtless go on.
Like the clothing company that played around with its initials, anti frackers have used the alliterative quality of the verb, to frack to make their feelings towards the companies who have acquired the licenses perfectly clear.
And of course the political commitment of the coalition Government raises questions about how much is simply politics and how much are carefully considered energy policy for the future.
But there it is, vegetation from thousands of years ago, created the coal we have relied on and in my family I am aware that two of my grandfathers were Miners before they went to war and one great grandfather died in a pit accident.
In Britain mineral rights belong to the Crown, so a speculator such as the founder of fracking, George P Mitchell cannot as he did in America, amass an enormous personal fortune, the benefits to the Treasury are significant and measured in Billions and the energy reserves will more than compensate for declining reserves in the North Sea.
The first shale gas field has been identified on the Fylde Coast near Blackpool, which has one amazing benefit, whatever the outcome for the future of energy supplies in the UK at least Blackpool will be able to keep its lights on .......
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