THE RIGHT DECISION

The decision to say no the application for drilling for shale gas at a site in Llandow in the Vale of Glamorgan yesterday is to be welcomed. There is a definite need for a pause for thought and a real need for the Welsh government to develop coherent policy in relation to test drilling for shale gas in Wales.

Environmentally there are still too many unanswered questions in relation to the environmental price that can be paid extraction of shale gas. In USA, the Shale Gas extraction industry made headway because it was exempted from groundwater protection laws, with some pretty dire consequences for some US communities.



US land laws also helped as it grants landowners under whose land the gas is extracted a share of the proceeds, encouraging many of them to ignore wider environmental concerns. this, however, is not the USA, in the UK people don't have that option as we have the Crown Estates.

Interestingly enough, there are potentially some parallels with the headlong and equally ill-thought out dash for gas in the 1980's (for Con Dems read Conservatives) with the possibility of a potential if short term revenue stream that may well be something that's excites the Conservatives. Ironically money aside what is actually driving this potentially seriously environmentally damaging and polluting shale gas extraction industry are belated thoughts of energy security.

Serious questions need to be asked as to who exactly reaps the financial benefits and who pays the price for the rapid expansion of the home grown energy sector? Whether it's relatively remote rural mountain top wind farms, open cast coal mines, large cross country electricity pylons close to some of our communities (rural or urban) or off-shore wind farms established in our coastal waters.

The Welsh government can rightly be criticised for passing the buck by insisting that county councillors had enough power, knowledge and control to make their own decision, whether that be test-drilling or developing policy for future fracking for shale gas. Simply calling for the Westminster government to work to develop policy on fracking with the devolved governments across the UK is not good enough, the Labour Government in Cardiff is not standing up for Wales, it is sleepwalking for Wales.