Shale Gas Extraction Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateLord Mackinlay of Richborough
Main Page: Lord Mackinlay of Richborough (Conservative - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Mackinlay of Richborough's debates with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
(1 year, 11 months ago)
Commons ChamberUrgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.
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Even before Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine, fracking had advantages because of the benefits for jobs, for investment, for tax revenues and for the positivity of the balance of payments, which I would rather were accruing here in the UK instead of our sending tens of billions to Qatar and other places. Is my right hon. Friend aware of the carbon dioxide savings from domestic energy supply? It has been calculated that 5 million tonnes of CO2 are emitted just from the cooling, declassification and transport of liquefied natural gas. That has to be a moral outrage.
My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and he takes his argument through logically, unlike many Opposition Members. If we wish to reduce carbon emissions, we are better off using gas as a transition fuel that comes from our own resources, rather than importing it. That must be true: we have those resources, we need the transition fuel, and therefore we should try to extract it domestically.