Unpalatable facts about fracking

YOUR feature on fracking addresses the main issues (The truth about fracking in Scotland, State of the nation, February 19). The fossil-fuel industry has a long history of pursuing practices which are inimical to the environment. Consequently, claims by the industry that it will adhere to strict regulatory frameworks are difficult to take seriously.

In the USA, where regulations are admittedly lax, satellite observations of huge oil and gas basins in East Texas and North Dakota confirm staggering nine or 10 per cent leakage rates of heat-trapping methane. This is worrying if attributable to poorly regulated extraction processes, but if it’s due to unavoidable natural seepage induced by the fracking process, the case is made for blocking further developments in Scotland’s more difficult geology.

At these levels of methane leakage, fracking speeds up human-caused climate change because methane is a super-potent greenhouse gas, which traps 86 times as much heat as carbon dioxide over 20 years. So even small leaks in natural gas production and the delivery system can have a large climate impact – enough to undermine the entire benefit of switching from coal-fired power to gas.

The only safe route toward bequeathing a healthy planet to future generations is wholescale adoption of renewable technologies.