Supporters of Fracking can take cold comfort from North Yorkshire’s approval of Third Energy’s plans to frack their KM8 well near Kirby Misperton, according to David Powell at New Economics Foundation: “The beleaguered fracking industry has spent five years watching lengthy slumps in both international gas prices and public support …

The Obama Administration’s support for the Paris Agreement on climate change was seen as a major breakthrough even though opposition from the Republican Congress prevented a full climate change treaty.  But a Trump Presidency looks set to tear up the Agreement as part of the plan to “make America great …

The claim that Britain faces an economic crisis in the event of a Brexit vote is widely seen as an integral part of “project fear”.  However, there might be a more sinister reason for the scaremongering. Figures from the Office for National Statistics this week show that the UK economy …

British attention on the US Primaries has focused on the remorseless rise of Donald Trump.  For the most part, the British verdict has been negative.  Even Prime Minister Cameron referred to Trump’s ideas as “stupid and divisive”.  The more Trump’s campaign has appeared to defy political gravity, the more alarmed …

The myth of “Saudi America” is little more than a sick joke for people in the ghost towns at the heart of the US shale plays.  The fracking bubble has long since burst.  Most of the shale oil and gas firms have gone bust.  And now local communities have to …

For all their claims to economic competence, George Osborne and David Cameron’s economic policy since 2010 has mainly been to try to recreate the conditions that existed in 2007.  Falling for the alchemy of mainstream classical economists, they diagnosed the key problem facing Britain to be not enough debt.  Through …

We cannot know for sure what prompted North Yorkshire Council to approve Third Energy’s application to hydraulically fracture its KM8 well near Kirby Misperton despite considerable local opposition.  The council will no doubt have taken account of change to UK policy that mean that ultimately Third Energy’s application will receive …

Potential future President Donald Trump has been publicly dismissive of climate change; recently appointing a known climate change denier to head up his energy policy team.  But behind the scenes, Trump may have more to fear from climate change than most. According to Ruth Sherlock at the Telegraph, Trump has …

It was meant to be the greenest government ever.  That was back in the days before Cameron became Prime Minister.  But even as late as 2011, George Osborne was promising to leave the rest of the EU in Britain’s green wake.  Indeed, despite cutting subsidies to renewables, scrapping research into …

Britain faces a looming energy crunch that is in its way as bad as the credit crunch of 2008.  The crisis is threefold.  First, the UK’s internal supply of fossil fuels has been falling rapidly.  The North Sea is now producing just a third of the oil and gas that …