There was something odd about George Osborne offering tax breaks for fracking when it was still banned by another part of his government. The ban has been lifted and exploration can begin again in Lancashire, in what could be the most important piece of economic good news since the discovery of North Sea oil.
But listening to the BBC reports this morning, it’s striking how the corporation already seems to be against it. Fracking has begun, it says. And the two things is listeners need to know about fracking? That it has been accused of polluting water in America and causing earth tremors. The upside, especially for Blackpool and its environs, was not mentioned.
A more balanced report would have added that fracking has already cut American gas costs by two-thirds – and that would be no small achievement in Britain where (appallingly) about 20,000 pensioners die of the cold each year, many afraid to turn on the heat because they can’t afford it.
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