Mark Dolan: Why aren't we fracking?

What is Vladimir Putin's greatest weapon? Tanks? Kalashnikovs? Nuclear weapons? None of the above. It's gas.

Gas and coal are Russia's greatest export resource, which bankroll old Vladimir’s dangerous and disruptive regime. And now here in the West, we are feeding the monster of his regime by buying billions of quid's worth of Russian gas and coal every year. In particular countries like Germany, who under the impossibly overrated leadership of Angela Merkelchose not to invest in nuclear power 10 years ago, are now dependent on Putin to keep the lights on in Berlin, Hamburg and Munich.

It means Germany are unable to talk tough with, Putin because Russia is now an decisive stakeholder in Germany's infrastructure. You can't bite the hand that feeds you.

Which is why the West turned a blind eye to Russia's disgraceful annexation of Crimea in 2014 and why it seems likely that Putin will invade Ukraine in the days to come. It’s not helped by the disastrous US president Joe Biden, whose botched departure from Afghanistan established the theme of western weakness and surrender.

Ukraine is an amazing country – the second largest by area, in the whole of Europe. It’s twice the size of Germany and I’ve had the privilege of working there. A beautiful country, with great people, a great history and their overnight trains are an experience to behold, with strangers sat together in carriages sharing food, and more than a few glasses of vodka.

Ukraine’s only crime, it seems, is its commitment to democracy, a market economy and eventual membership of the western security alliance NATO. So have we got their back? No, quite the opposite. We are bending over backwards to accommodate Putin himself. The Germans for example have effectively signed off Nordstream 2, an enormous gas pipeline which will cement Russia’s dominance of the energy market across Europe and give Putin the ability to unilaterally switch off power supplies to Ukraine, whenever he fancies.

He can literally pull the plug, on one of our great Eastern European allies. Meanwhile here in the UK, hard-working Brits are in the grip of a cost of living crisis, caused by the extraordinarily damaging experiment of lockdowns. How so?

Because if you print money, keep interest rates artificially low and slow down supply chains, you create inflation. But the horrific cost of living crisis is being exacerbated by fuel prices, because even though we are standing on hundreds of years worth of potential energy, we import it from all around the world. With vast reserves of oil, coal and shale gas, we buy it from somewhere else. It's like the Arabs buying sand, or the Eskimos buying ice. As the brilliant Mail journalist Ross Clark points out in the Daily Mail newspaper

Twenty years ago Britain was self-sufficient in oil. No longer. We produced 49million tonnes of oil in 2020 but had to import 63.7million tonnes. 8 billion of which came from, you guessed it - our pals in Russia. And Britain lies at the western end of a European gas grid, powered in large part by Russian gas pipes. If Russian gas were to be withheld from the East, our gas supply from Europe would swiftly end.

Sowhat about fracking? Shale gas is a far cleaner fuel than gas and coal, although not a long-term solution if we're going to get carbon down. But it is certainly a great short to medium term option that has achieved energy independence for America, and a fraction of the fuel costs for our pals on the other side of the pond. Fracking was even backed by former President Barack Obamawho recommended shale gas as a lower-carbon "bridge" fuel.According to experts we’ve got at least 50 years of the stuff beneath our feet.

Frack baby frack. It makes so much fracking sense. And what about coal? Well we have drastically cut back coal production. That's great you would think - we are saving that planet. Except we’re not - we just buy coal from somewhere else. In 2020, 45% of our coal was imported – in spite of Britain sitting on several hundred years’ worth of reserves. Once again Russia was the single biggest source of our imports, shipping 1.62million tonnes to us. Do you see the problem?

The idiocy of our energy policy defies comprehension. So a lack of energy independence is fuelling the cost of living crisis, leaving us exposed to international energy prices and adding to the corrosive problem of inflation. But a lack of energy independence, as we are seeing in the Ukraine, also has national security implications.

Buying energy from international bad actors like Russia, just fills their coffers and provides them with the resources, with which to threaten the free world. So what about nuclear? Well done the French, for getting on board with nuclear in the 60s. They ignored misguided environmental campaigners and now have a sustainable, secure, low carbon source of energy. Meanwhile our progress on nuclear has been anaemic. Just as France are planning to build multiple nuclear power plants in the next few years, we're finally getting around to building one - the long-delayed Hinkley Point C plant in Somerset.

There are now just six working nuclear power stations left in Britain. All are scheduled to close by 2035.

And price of energy in this country is not the only problem. Supply is under threat too, with rumours this week that the National Grid may literally suck the power out of electric car batteries overnight, if the energy is required. Your car, parked on the driveway or on the street. Welcome to hell.

Now I want to clean up the planet and get our carbon down and I’m no climate change denier. We have a duty to future generations. But the zeal for net Zero, with no questions asked, cannot be justified if it decimates our economy and severely impacts peoples livelihoods and quality of life, all whilst China, India, Brazil and the USA continue to pollute for fun. The long-term opportunities for green energy are enormous for this country.

A huge potential employer and source of national income. Go green and the world will be green with envy. So yes, let’s be number one in this green revolution, where our technology and expertise is already world-class. But energy policy is always about the right mix. Why are we bowing to the green lobby, when it will damage our country or economy and our society so badly in the years ahead?

They were wrong about nuclear power, and they overestimated wind and solar. I have colossal optimism about the future of Britain. We are set to have the fastest growth in the G7and England isset to be the freest country in Europe, as a result of the early lifting of Covid restrictions. Well done Boris.

If you are going to prove me wrong, you’re going the right way about it.

But if we're going to bounce back, our economic long-term economic recovery will be fuelled by fuel itself. We need a sensible, cost-effective solution to the country’s energy needs, without making Vladimir Putin any more billions.

If you don't have control of your energy resources, you are hostage to international fortune and potentially limitless price hikes. Our dependence on other peoples’ energy is something that will be leveraged by those that wish us ill. Critics of shale gas exploration are worried about earthquakes.

Well the international tectonic plates are shifting on the border of Ukraine, which is a far greater threat. The idea of achieving energy independence via shale gas in the short to medium term,makes the Earth move for me.

The lesson from green extremists is clear – go woke, no smoke. And it all begs the question, why the frack, aren’t we fracking? We haven’t had the right energy policies for decades. All it’s been from politicians for years now, is hot air.