YP Letters: Shale gas is cheaper and safer than nuclear

From: Philip Bartey, Lower Wyke Green, Bradford.
The proposed fracking plant at Kirby Misperton.The proposed fracking plant at Kirby Misperton.
The proposed fracking plant at Kirby Misperton.

I READ with great interest the excellent article on shale gas by Matt Ridley (The Yorkshire Post, March 11).

I think as the North Sea gas resources are dwindling we need to seek alternate sources of energy to serve us as well as coal did during the Industrial Revolution.

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When we started mining for coal, we had similar soothsayers and fortune tellers forecasting the end of the world, predicting we would collapse into massive sink holes.

None of the critics were 
right then and they are wrong now.

The alternative requires massive investment in nuclear power or reliance on gas from overseas including heaven forbid from Russia.

Nuclear power is dangerous and how come we are paying the French and Chinese for the pleasure?

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Shale gas is not just an alternate source of fuel – it is far cheaper than the alternatives and much safer.

As Lord Ridley knows, shale gas resources will last another hundred years at least. By then, we might have colonised Mars and discovered goodness knows what next.

Would I be happy for them to dig under my garden? You bet I would.