November 22, 2011. Copyright 2011, Graphic News. All rights reserved Gas fracking could turn world energy politics upside-down By Neil Winton LONDON, November 22, Graphic News: Gas fracking might sound like an insult but it promises to revolutionise the world's supply of energy. Until a couple of years ago, the conventional wisdom threatened western nations with the scary prospect of dwindling supplies of energy with at least two unattractive consequences. High energy prices would torpedo their economic viability, while their political clout would be diluted because countries like Russia and Iran might use their monopoly of energy resources to increase their influence. New supplies of gas would throw that scenario up in the air. Gas fracking could double the world's available supply of natural gas, according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA), and extend the world's supply at current rates of use to over 250 years from the estimated 120 years of conventional supply. Natural gas provides power for heating, energy and industrial feed stocks. Even cars could be powered by gas if these new sources are viable. Conventional natural gas is discovered by drilling into rocks to find pools of the stuff, which is then pumped to the surface. Gas fracking exploits an old discovery that shale rock itself contains massive amounts of gas, which can be exploited by new techniques. Gas companies drill down to the shale layer, and the well then turns horizontal, parallel with the surface. Holes are blasted in the rock (the "fracking" bit), to release the gas, which is then pushed back up to the surface by natural pressure. America is leading the exploitation of "unconventional" gas, or shale gas. In 2000, shale gas amounted to about one percent of U.S. supplies and it imported a huge amount. Now shale gas accounts for about 30 percent of the market in the U.S., and exports are rising. Britain has big potential supplies of shale gas, as does China, France, Poland and Australia. But gas fracking has powerful critics. Environmentalists say it pollutes local supplies of water, and can cause mild earthquakes. A video on YouTube called Gasland shows someone innocently turning on a water tap, only for flames to gush out, apparently from a badly drilled shale gas well. Recent drilling at a site in Blackpool, England, caused local consternation when minor earth tremors were set off. Some politicians don't like the idea either. Plentiful supplies of shale gas will force energy prices lower, making the drive to renewable energy using wind, wave and solar power hugely expensive in comparison. Government climate change targets to cut carbon dioxide emissions will suffer if natural gas use accelerates over renewables. Environmental lobby group Friends of the Earth has called for a moratorium on fracking until concerns are addressed. France, Switzerland and some U.S. states have called for a ban. An article in Britain's conservative Spectator magazine by environmental writer Matt Ridley said arguments for renewables are made obsolete by this new source. "We're entering an era when gas will be cheap, plentiful -- and green," he said. Some experts think plentiful supplies of gas will bypass renewables entirely on the way to a hydrogen economy. Let the argument begin. /ENDS