UK Government Unveils Support Package For Shale Gas Development

The British government announced measures on Thursday to speed up planning applications to support development of the shale gas industry. Recent decisions on shale exploration remain “disappointedly slow”, the secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy, Greg Clark, said in a written statement to Parliament. Therefore, the government said it would introduce measures to streamline and improve the regulation process for shale gas planning applications so decisions are made more quickly. —Reuters, 17 May 2018

The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF) today welcomed the UK government’s announcement of encouragement for shale gas exploration, but called for immediate and rapid progress rather than prolonged and needless consultation. The GWPF cautioned that prolonged consultation on allowing early stage exploration to be taken out of the planning system, and on shale’s status as NSIP was needless and introduced the possibility of unhelpful delay. —Global Warming Policy Forum, 17 May 2018

In light of the crisis in British-Russian relations, the Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF) is calling on the Government to get its act together and speed up the development of UK shale gas. —Global Warming Policy Forum, 16 March 2018

Shale oil production in the United States will rise by a record-breaking 144,000 bpd from May to June, hitting 7.178 million bpd, the Energy Information administration estimated in its latest Drilling Productivity Report. —Oil Price, 15 May 2018

Europe is starting to steal some of the limelight from China’s booming liquefied natural gas demand as imports pick up after several lackluster years. Europe and China will be comparable in significance as importing regions in the coming years, Cheniere Energy Inc. said, citing data from Wood Mackenzie Ltd. That follows “absolutely phenomenal” growth in China last year, Andrew Walker, vice president for strategy at the company that pioneered the transformation of the U.S. shale boom into global exports, said in Amsterdam. —Bloomberg, 14 May 2018

The upcoming commission tasked with the management of Germany’s coal exit will prioritise jobs and economic stability over climate protection, a strategy paper seen by the Clean Energy Wire suggests. —Clean Energy Wire, 17 May 2018 

The climatologist Bill Gray passed away in 2016. One of the world’s leading experts on tropical hurricanes and the initiator of seasonal hurricane forecasts he was also a prominent critic of mainstream views on climate change, arguing that natural processes play a much more important role than is generally acknowledged. —Global Warming Policy Foundation, 15 May 2018