Monday 13 January 2014

Fracking - the carve-up begins

Central government will get 62%, France's EDF Energy will get 37%, and the locals will get 1%. Oh, and the local governments will get to keep any business rates revenue from the drilling sites - if the drill-head happens to be on their land. It is quite common to drill at right-angles to the source these days, at a distance of miles from it, above ground.

You may say that central government getting the lion's share ultimately goes to the populace anyway, but it is only going to be thrown into a massive black-hole caused by keeping other private investors happy, after their assets were mis-managed by the lot who caused the black hole in the first place.

What's the betting that EDF's investment in the scheme is being underwritten by the British Government in any case?

Shale gas is mainly - if not exclusively - found in the South, so the possible break-away by the Scots will not affect the deal at all. They can carry on sitting on their radio-active granite up there, watching the North Sea gas and oil being piped down to the South as it always has been, and they can watch the light-pollution from their hydro-electric power illuminate the sky just over the border as usual too.

For years, we have been at the mercy of the Gulf States, and it has been galling to see ordinary, nomadic Bedouin turn up in town with oil-drums stuffed with cash in the back of their air-conditioned pick-up trucks, or being chauffeur-driven by Pakistani drivers and cleaners. I think they got quite a lot more than 1%. It's not as if their winter heating bills amount to very much in any case.

It seems as though the 'green-belt' protection of ancient forests is going to be torn up and thrown away to keep the massive building companies happy at the same time.

If central government get their way, forests which have been growing in Britain for thousands of years are to be felled for the sake of Barratt-style housing developments, rather than using all the brown-field sites which have been created by the dismantling of British industry over the last 30 years. Houses surrounded by green fields sell for so much more than ones built on old gas-works sites which we have no more use for.

Still, look on the bright side - for every mature tree cut down in an ancient British forest, the builders promise to plant at least one sapling in some other part of the country to make up for it.

Our great-grandchildren will be so grateful to them for that.

8 comments:

  1. Cynical but true is my immediate reaction to this Tom.
    There was a piece about building in villages on Country File last night - they showed Cameron saying that it would never happen without village agreement - then they showed you a site where it was about to happen. As ever - politicians say one thing and do another - near election time this happens even more.

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    1. What's cynical about it? I thought I was being quite optimistic. At least we get saplings.

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  2. As 'Fracking' is banned over here, we're sending our lads over to the UK instead. Sounds about right!

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    1. B.T. invested billions in the French telephone network about 20 years ago, They lost every penny, and that when it really used to belong to Britain. Guess who paid for that?

      I'd like to go back to the old days, when we called the French unspeakable names to do with their choice in food and gave them two fingers for every one they gave us.

      The Simpsons got it right - Cheese Eating Surrender Monkies!

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    2. (I ought to add that I am truly 'joking' here, just as when I used to plunge my own mother's head into a bowl of cream until the bubbles stopped coming up.

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    3. ) Fit it yourself, garlic- eaters!

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  3. Fracking's the same the world around. Oh, yes, and uninspected coal scrubbing holding tanks that shut down the water supply of Charleston, WV. Owned by a company owned by (wait for it) the Koch brothers, whose $ drive politics. So, let's keep on complaining.

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  4. Just to cheer everyone up, and I don't usually put videos on other peoples blogs but dance to this from Seize the Day....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abtx3tXjRwE&feature=youtu.be

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