MP Mark Menzies visited a site at Preese Hall to investigate.
He said: "I went with an open mind, and I had plenty of questions, constituents had brought up.
"But I found they were a genuine group of men, who have little experience with the media, and they went to great lengths to answer all the questions I had.
"They take the environment seriously and from what I saw they are excited about finding an additional source of energy for our increasing needs."
Blackpool Gazette (print edition) 27 Jan 2011, Page 17.
Let's address some of the claims made above:
"a genuine group of men, who have little experience with the media"
Not so. Cuadrilla have given several media interviews, and appeared in a documentary on Channel4 News in Summer of 2010. It seems that Cuadrilla are also using the Vancouver based internet social media Public Relations/Advocacy/Consultancy group O2Nxt Social Media Inc, who employ a variety of PR techniques and methods across the many internet-based social media groups. For example, custom-built websites, twitter and facebook.
Generally, PR/advocacy groups are know to interact with local-based commentaries in order to quosh or sway and otherwise attempt to infliuence local opinion on. These might well already be in operation on the Blackpool Gazette website's online comments system. This type of professional social media advocacy which appears to the unwary onlooker to be local "grass-roots" support is known as 'astroturfing'.
The group stands to make £21.5 billion before deductions (source: No Hot Air/Nick Grealy) from extracting an estimated 150bcm total over 30 years (source: No Hot Air/Nick Grealy) from the Bowland Shale. 2009 UK gas usage levels were 88bcm per annum is less than 2 years supply in real terms at around 10% of the total gas energy demand per annum (source: No Hot Air/Nick Grealy).
"from what I saw they are excited about finding an additional source of energy for our increasing needs"
Cuadrilla recently issued a statement, published in Oil Voice News:
Energy security?
The oil/gas industry are pitching shale gas as one way to increase UK energy security by stating repeatedly that: "imported energy undermines UK national security". They're mainly concerned with the billions in profit which can be made.
"from what I saw they are excited about finding an additional source of energy for our increasing needs"
Cuadrilla recently issued a statement, published in Oil Voice News:
"In Cuadrilla's view, shale gas can offer a „triple win' for people in the UK: (1) helping to ensure energy security through new domestic energy supplies, (2) lowering the cost and price volatility of energy to consumers and, like all natural gas, (3) reducing greenhouse gas emissions if burned to create electricity instead of burning coal - natural gas-fired power produces around half the carbon emissions of coal-fired power. Thus, natural gas can play an important transitional role in the development of a low-carbon energy system, an ongoing process that will take many decades."
Energy security?
The oil/gas industry are pitching shale gas as one way to increase UK energy security by stating repeatedly that: "imported energy undermines UK national security". They're mainly concerned with the billions in profit which can be made.
- Our needs are already being met by imports from Norway (direct pipeline) and Qatar (Liquid Natural Gas - LNG).
- According to the British Geological Society, no more than 150bcm (less than 2 years supply for UK at 2009 levels) could be retrieved from the whole of the Bowland Shale.
- Cuadrilla are excited by the profits they would make. Let's not make them out to be 'charitable saviours' protecting our nation's energy security.
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