Fracking risks grossly exaggerated

I SEE that Clare County Council, in response to a vocal minority of protestors, has decided to amend its county plan to ban the practise of “fracking” within its jurisdiction.

Such is the outcome of Irish parish pump politics, which is well on the way to the destruction of our economy and polity. The Clare Basin, along with the Lough Allen Basin, and perhaps the Dublin Basin, are bituminous shale basins where there is potential for the discovery and production of substantial quantities of natural gas in the form of methane (CH4).

Natural gas is already produced in declining quantities from the Kinsale Head gas field and some may soon be produced from the small and short-life Corrib gas field. It is now possible that, with successful exploration and development, our potential resources of shale gas could, in a relatively short time span, yield significant additional quantities of natural gas. This could fuel much of our electricity-generating capacity which will have to include the additional generating capacity required to back up unreliable, unpredictable and uneconomic wind-powered generating capacity that produces electricity only about a third of the time and not always when needed.