Shale Gas And The New World

A resource that guarantees energy for the UK for decades to come is obviously something of a matter of interest to many companies, politicians, organizations and Heritage groups when you assess the current situation.

This is a gas extracted from shales that were alive hundreds of millions of years ago. it was hard to extract it a century ago but techniques have been developed that made it easy to access it. With it comes jobs in the local and national market and also comes some side effects.

More Shale Gas than Oil

It is said that there is more shale gas in the US than there is oil in Saudi Arab. You can imagine what could happen if US starts to export the shale gas into the international market. It doesn't stop there. Geological surveys show that even in the UK there is enough shale gas to give us a energy guarantee for many 100s of years to come.

Lack of Gas in the UK

More than 50 percent of the gas Britons use is imported from Middle East. A ship that is heading its way to the Great Britain can change course in its journey if another country is paying higher price for that gas. UK itself only has 2 weeks worth of gas. One can quickly see the urgency in the situation.

A New Cash Machine?

US is heading its way towards becoming shale gas dependant since shale gas is abundant. UK is also following the same route. Other European countries have prospects at this new type of energy too and what this means is that Europe as well as North America might become big exporters of shale gas. In a decades time, many different markets could see a big boom. A good news for investors.

Dangers?

Shale Gas has its downsides too. Shale Gas is extracted through a process known as fracking. In places near a shale gas resort, people have experienced high levels of methane in their water. Families have stopped using that water and are buying water from elsewhere.

There isn't enough scientific evidence that fracking has caused methane to appear in water. Experiments are still going on, however its not easy to convince the locals. In US companies are not releasing the details of what chemicals surface with fracking rocks. These details are classified as highly confidential. Doctors, researchers or whoever wants to find out has to sign a consent that they will not open their mouth about the details. This seems to be the way to handle public.

Of course there could be dangerous chemicals that may mix with water however what can be possibly said if no information is shared in the public domain.

These chemicals reports have not appeared in the UK yet and we hope UK engineers are able to tackle the problems better than the US.

How fast we change?

The most interesting thing we might see is the number of cars and the amount of time it takes them to switch to using this new type of fuel. I predict that this change would be very quick and everyone would adopt in relatively short time. I also predict that one could learn how quickly we (individuals, governments and companies) can change if we really want to. Electric cars have been around for a very long time but still haven't caught on. Shales Cars might become the norm much faster.

Related Tweets:

Fracking water injection could trigger major earthquake, say scientists http://t.co/1uP9kDU2FN

— Guardian Science (@guardianscience) July 11, 2013

Ninety Percent of Pennsylvanians Want Fracking Companies to Reveal Toxic Chemicals http://t.co/FmukgnYXCl via @buzzflash

— Berks Gas Truth (@BerksGasTruth) July 13, 2013

MURDOCK: Fracking is greener than critics claim - Washington Times: http://t.co/KjwW0oWp3e via @washtimes

— JB (@LSUJEFF) July 13, 2013

Worldwide movement, baby. Fracking ban halts first shale gas project in Spain - http://t.co/gtdxiBe0Lp http://t.co/VVifIJN0EN

— Josh Fox (@gaslandmovie) July 12, 2013

UK Energy Secretary: "The potential for shale gas is fantastic for our energy security… and the climate." http://t.co/lBD0bibTR0

— Steve Everley (@saeverley) July 11, 2013