Fracking would not help to solve current energy crisis

It is “hard to think of a dumber response” to the current energy crisis than to give the green light to fracking, one of the UK’s leading energy academics has argued.

At a briefing on Thursday (20 January) organised by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, a panel of industry experts was quizzed on recent calls by net zero critics to boost domestic UK gas production.

Michael Grubb, professor of energy and climate change at University College London, said: “It’s hard to think of a dumber response to a short-term crisis than to take a measure that you know is incompatible with the long term, which seems to be the fracking proposition.”

Tessa Khan, founder and director of recently founded fossil fuel reduction campaign Uplift, said any attempt to bring more natural gas production on line would take too long to solve the escalation in energy prices.

Pointing out that it takes on average 28 years from issuing a gas exploration license to supplying the fuel, she said: “If you issue an oil and gas license today, it will be 2050 by the time you get the benefit of production.”

The interconnected nature of the global gas market meant that increased UK production would feed through to lower prices, Khan said: “Increasing domestic production is going to do very little to increase the affordability of energy bills at the moment: we are part of a global market.”

Khan also said that relatively low tax rates on UK oil and gas production gives the government scope to take up the Labour opposition’s call to impose a windfall tax on North Sea producers.

Pointing to the “huge disparity” in the tax take per barrel of oil between $21 in Norway and $2 in the UK, she said a “one off” windfall measure is “worth considering”.

Emma Pinchbeck, chief executive of Energy UK, raised concerns that the industry will have its work cut out explaining rising bills later this year because of the time lag involved in the setting of the price cap

“Bills will go up as global prices fall, which will be difficult to explain to customers,” she said, adding that while wholesale gas prices are due to drop in the spring, suppliers will still need to recoup the subsidies they have been providing to customers over recent months.