Put the lights back on: shale gas has arrived

Fretting about an impending energy apocalypse has long been a diverting parlour game of the chattering classes. Projections are drawn up showing that the last drop of petrol will be squeezed into the last 4×4 in about 50 years’ time. It is said that Britain, forced by the European Union to retire a third of its coal-power stations, will soon be unable to meet its energy demands; the lights will go out within a decade. It seems almost a shame to spoil the gloom by discussing something that has already turned the American energy debate upside down: shale gas.

Held in your hand, a piece of shale looks distinctly unrevolutionary. It is a heavy black sedimentary rock found all over the world. Extracting gas from it has for years been seen as a fool’s game: technically possible, but sadly uneconomical. So shale took its place on the fringes of the energy debate — until a few years ago, when new extraction technology changed everything.