Boris Johnson's shale gas intervention welcome: Now he has to finish the job

London, 9 March - Net Zero Watch has welcomed Boris Johnson's last minute decision to overrule the energy regulator, preventing Britain's shale gas wells being cemented over for good.

According to press reports, the Prime Minister has opened the door to the revival of the UK’s shale gas industry in the aftermath of the Government’s ban on imports of Russian oil.

According to the Daily Telegraph "the Prime Minister wants his ministers to look again at whether fracking, which has been under a moratorium for more than two years, can help diversify the country’s energy supply."

Officials are said to be working on an “energy supply strategy”.

Meanwhile, the US administration is ratcheting up pressure on shale gas producers, telling them they should be doing “whatever it takes” to increase shale supplies and tame energy prices that have soared following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Even the EU's newly released energy plan makes absolutely clear that the first and overriding priority is to obtain non-Russian natural gas to shore up security of supply.

Net Zero Watch director Benny Peiser said:

The Prime Minister needs to heed the desperate calls by US and EU officials for new, non-Russian gas supplies. It is vital that he overrules the obstructive anti-shale gas activism of Kwasi Kwarteng and the Department of Business and Energy.

BEIS, DEFRA, the Climate Change Committee, and even Ofgem are responsible for the current energy emergency and cannot be trusted with its resolution.

The lack of realism and the ideological dogmatism in BEIS underlines the need for the PM to take personal control of energy security. We think he should create a new Cabinet committee for 'National Energy Security', based in Number 10.”