Chasing profits at any cost

There is the usual chatter of safeguards and domesday scenarios about existing power sources running out, but the reality is that the private energy transnational corporations are concerned only with driving a quick profit.

Despite all talk about seismic sensors being used to monitor the Preese Hall well site and assurances given about immediate shutdowns in the event of earth tremors, the developers are playing games with public concern.

Well operator Cuadrilla Resources admits that its drilling was responsible for two earthquakes last year of magnitudes 2.3 and 1.5 that hit the Blackpool area, causing residents to report their homes shaking.

Corporate insistence that no damage was incurred is beside the point.

Are citizens to regard being woken from their sleep and frightened by the movement of their homes as normal and acceptable phenomena?

Apparently so since the experts commissioned by the Department of Energy and Climate Change have recommended that Cuadrilla be given the go-ahead.

This is despite their own testimony that fracking-induced earthquakes up to magnitude three are possible, which "would be strongly felt by people within a few kilometres from the epicentre and could cause some alarm."

The company pledges to proceed with caution to minimise seismic risks, but what will such promises be worth when shareholders insist on enhanced profitability or there is a perceived hitch in gas supplies?

In any case, there are other issues at stake related to air and water pollution that cannot simply be dismissed as the concerns of a trendy, obsessed group of environmental extremists.

Injecting water, sand and chemicals by high-pressure cables into bore holes, once explosives have shattered and cracked the shale, to force out the gas carries likely dangers of pollution for surrounding agriculture.

At a time when almost all of England is facing drought, using scarce water resources for such an operation cannot be justified.

When David Cameron was advised that his party could not be elected without leaving its comfort zone, he enlisted Zac Goldsmith to try to do a makeover job, painting the Tories a greener shade of blue.

Once in office, they have ignored the whimpering of their craven Liberal Democrat partners and reverted to the traditional Tory approach that, if private profits are involved, no scheme can be all bad.

While Tory backbenchers revert to type, deriding environmental campaigners as obstacles to growth and jobs, they miss the reality that a green energy programme, based on prioritising clean and renewable sources emanating from sun and sea could be a major boost to employment and business opportunities.

The shale gas lobby argues that the scale of reserves could drive down energy prices, but such claims should be treated with caution.

We should all remember the nuclear industry propaganda that atomic power would so cheap that metering it would prove unnecessary.

Instead of hopping on board each successive energy industry bandwagon, government should invest seriously in renewable sources and tackle the biggest energy scandal of all - inadequate domestic and workplace insulation, causing much of the heat generated by power stations to be wasted.

Unless this shortcoming is tackled in a national mobilisation, heating costs will continue to rocket and ministers will swallow every gimmick trotted out by the energy profiteers.