A NATION’S riches, spent to meet vital national needs of all kinds, including its people’s welfare, depends on its natural assets.
Petroleum products, vital for so many valid purposes, may be recoverable by fracking, as was promised in Rishi Sunak’s pre-election manifesto as a candidate for UK Government leadership.
Mr Sunak evidently judges that clamorous pressure from green groups is more important and worthy than is our virtually-broke and energy-starved nation’s proper needs (“Sunak told to ban new oil as well as fracking”, The Herald October 27). If that is representative of his way of doing things, he is unfit to hold Prime Ministerial office.
At the very least, further pilot studies are essential to study fracking’s safety and efficacy in the UK, designed and carried out by relevant, independent experts.
After all, electricity generation based on wind power was introduced without pilot studies. That now costs us billions and with no end in sight. This means of electricity production is very flawed by intermittency and myriad additional problems.
Pre-installation evaluation of wind turbines could have allowed much more rational policies for their application. They are not even green when account is taken of greenhouse gases production in manufacture alone.
The PM has now arbitrarily deprived the nation of petroleum from fracking, potentially vital as a source of energy and of petroleum-derivatives, and evidently without due consideration. In the national interest, Mr Sunak must think again.
Charles Wardrop, Perth
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