Government ministers have got behind the rush for shale gas as a survey estimated bigger reserves than previously thought in the North of England. Plans have been drawn up by the government to reduce tax on income generated from shale gas for those companies involved from 62% to 30%.
The government has unveiled a package of reforms to enable shale gas exploration as British Geological Survey scientists believe there are some 40 trillion cubic meters of shale gas in the ground in the area covering Lancashire’s Bowland Basin and beyond. These include £100,000 for communities near each hydraulically fracked well and 1% of revenues from every production. Only further exploration can reveal how much can be extracted for commercial use but shale gas represents an exciting new potential energy resource for the UK.
However Friends of the Earth campaigners have said that shale gas is not the UK’s answer to energy challenges and its potential has been largely over exaggerated and extracting shale gas will have a significant effect on the environment and local communities.
