‘Sooner the better’ for fracking

SIR, – It was right for the P&J editorial (September 28) to highlight the significance of the arrival of the first shipment of fracked shale gas from the US to the Ineos plant at Grangemouth. The “inevitability" of the march of shale gas mentioned in the article has been known for years, including the impact it would have on the world prices for oil, plus the importance to secure future supplies from the US to keep Grangemouth open for business.

Indeed, the only parties who have been in denial from the very beginning are the SNP and the Greens who have consistently refused to embrace the future of affordable gas on our doorstep, and instead continue to support investment in expensive, useless industrial-scale windfarms supplied from overseas.

The conundrum for the SNP is that as a single-issue party they rely on supporters from all sectors of the political spectrum – from the Tartan Tories at one end, to Corbynite lefties and beyond at the other, all bound together in the hope of independence. This means objective thinking is very hard for the SNP, lest they upset any of their disparate supporters even if the hierarchy knows carefully regulated fracking is the right policy to follow.

Despite the risks for the SNP, my guess is that there will eventually be some form of fudge claiming “evidence-based" support for fracking from some obscure inquiry allowing operations to commence – it’s only a matter of time and the sooner the better for Aberdeen and Scotland. Ian Lakin, Murtle den Road, Aberdeen.