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This was passed to me by Edward. It originated from Phllip Foster.
Shale Oil has been extracted in Scotland for 100 years.
Of course Huhne is ignorant of the fact that shale oil and gas extraction is nothing new. In reality this was the first large scale operation of its kind in the world - in West Lothian, Scotland. The operations were only ceased when they were undercut by directly extracted oil from the USA and the Middle East.
The company founded by James 'Paraffin' Young extracted vast amounts of petroleum from coal and shale in West Lothian for more than 100 years and at the peak, extraction was almost 3 million imperial tons per annum. Bathgate chemical works was then possibly the largest on Earth.
Billions of tons of shale and coal remain underground in the area.
While environmentalists, such as Friends of the Earth Scotland, want a ban on the fracking process, I find it difficult to determine exactly what the green lobbies' answer is to our future energy requirements as they're against nuclear, coal and now fracking. Do they really want to destroy the country, both economically and socially?
We need energy to survive. Part of our political representatives' duty is to ensure the people are provided with adequate energy at affordable prices. No energy source is free from risk or damage to the environment, but if shale is found and can be retrieved at a sensible cost, surely that can only be good for Scotland.
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