Falling oil prices since 2014 devastated the US fracking industry, causing widespread bankruptcies and leaving a trail of ghost towns in their wake.  But according to the companies that are still standing, technological improvements have brought the cost of fracking down to the point that they can turn a profit …

Across the Western world, centrist political parties and their supporters are like punch-drunk boxers, reeling from a series of near-knockout blows.  First there was the British (i.e. English and Welsh) decision to leave the European Union.  Then came the ‘impossible’ election of President Donald Trump.  Then there was the less …

News that supermarkets have been rationing broccoli and iceberg lettuces was met with the usual British stiff upper lip.  But we should ask a few searching questions about why produce that we have taken for granted is suddenly unavailable, and what this might tell us about the resilience of our globalised …

Fracking and chemicals giant Ineos has threatened to sue the National Trust to gain access to the charity’s land for fracking.  According to David Leask at Herald Scotland: “Greenpeace, which campaigns against fracking, yesterday revealed documents showing Ineos Shale, a subsidiary of the Ineos group, has threatened the trust with …

Nine out of the top ten bankruptcies in the USA in 2016 were energy companies, with fracking companies accounting for five out of the ten, according to Jones Day: “With one exception, the Top 10 List of ‘public company’ (defined as a company with publicly traded stock or debt) bankruptcies …

News that Vladimir Putin provides the funding of anti-fracking campaigns will have come as a big surprise to the thousands of volunteers who donate and campaign to prevent what is widely seen as an environmentally and economically destructive industry. In fact, the story says more about the neo-McCarthyism in the USA …

Baroness Helena Kennedy called it “government without wing mirrors.”  It is the practice of passing into law draconian measures that the government of the day claims to be too nice or too sensible to ever use against the people: “It is… vital that any process of modernisation or reform must …

Here’s a spooky little story that just might resonate with this week’s news: In a somewhat obscure spy thriller from 1982 – The Twentieth Day of January – Ted Allbeury tells the story of how in the future the KGB interferes with a US presidential election in order to get …

Oil giant Exxon has broadly accepted the science behind climate change and global warming.  It does not, however, regard the Paris Climate Agreement or any future climate regulations as an impediment to its operations. The simple – and undoubtedly true – reason for this is fundamentally depressing: even concerned environmentalists …

Technological prowess has ushered in a new century of energy independence.  Techniques for recovering the oil found in shale deposits and bitumen sands, for drilling in ultra-deep water and for recovering Arctic oil have allowed the Western states to break free from our dependency on the Middle East and Russia …