Counting the Cost - The Future of Oil Jobs in the Middle East

Exposing The Real Price Of Fracking

Fractured Earth: The Pennsylvania towns polluted and poisoned by Shale Gas extraction

Osborne: Fracking 'Won't Slash' Household Energy Bills

BBC: Large-scale fracking in the UK is not likely to lead to big reductions in household gas bills, Chancellor George Osborne has said.

Extracting shale gas would boost tax receipts and aid the UK economy, Mr Osborne said.

But he played down expectations that consumers would see big reductions in prices in evidence to a Lords committee.

David Cameron has previously said it had "real potential" to cut bills.

Speaking to the House of Lords economic affairs committee, Mr Osborne said both he and the prime minister were big supporters of fracking.

But he said he did not want to suggest that the UK would see the kind of price cuts seen in the US - where prices are down by up to 40%. » | Tuesday, February 04, 2014

Going Underground: Fracking under Your Home & MoD Tries to Unmask Anonymous

Afshin Rattansi goes underground with former head of regulatory risk at HBOS, Paul Moore, to investigate whether bankers have learnt their lesson since the bailout. We ask Friends of the Earth's Jane Thomas if energy multinationals can frack under your house without planning permission. We get to the bottom of why an MP tried to claim expenses for not voting at the Syria War debate in parliament. And David Cameron spends millions on trying to uncover the faces behind 'Anonymous'.

Pro-fracking Planning Reforms Rushed Through Despite Strong Opposition, Lords Warn

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Homeowners will no longer be individually notified of plans to drill under their homes, as part of changes that Lords suggest received inadequate public consultation and parliamentary scrutiny

Ministers rushed through pro-fracking planning reforms without proper scrutiny and despite overwhelming opposition, a Lords committee has found.

Under the reforms, which came into force as secondary legislation earlier this month, homeowners will no longer be individually notified of a planning application by an energy company seeking to drill or frack beneath their home.

Opponents fear the change, which still requires final parliamentary approval, could lead to fracking taking place without homeowners’ knowledge.

Nick Boles, the planning minister, said in December that having to notify every homeowner was “unnecessarily excessive” and instead, companies would only be “required to publish a notice in a local newspaper and put up site displays in local parishes”.

A Lords committee has now urged the Lords to look again at the reforms, raising a series of “shortcomings” with how they were rushed through and suggesting the policy had not been “adequately thought through” and may be “imperfectly achieve their policy objectives”. » | Emily Gosden, Energy Editor | Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Fracking 'Threatens God's Glorious Creation'

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The Church of England has told parishioners that fracking causes environmental problems and risks lasting harm to “God’s glorious creation”.

The warning has been issued to Anglicans in Lancashire, where significant work to extract gas and oil by fracking has been proposed.

The Diocese of Blackburn has published a leaflet for its flock, telling them that for Christians, fracking presents “a choice between economic gain and a healthy environment.”

The church's decision to highlight potential downsides of fracking comes as Conservative ministers step up efforts to sell the technology to voters as an economic necessity.

Fracking, which involves fracturing rocks deep underground with water and chemicals to extract oil and natural gas, has sharply cut US energy bills and imports.

Ministers say it could do the same for Britain, but campaigners and local residents are opposing fracking in several counties, warning that it does environmental harm. » | James Kirkup, Deputy Political Editor | Tuesday, August 13, 2013

The New Shale Rush - USA