South of England too dry to frack

Bearing in mind the summer hose-pipe bans and those photos of cracked mud in dried-out reservoirs, it is not greatly surprising that the Environment Agency has warned that many parts of England simply cannot support a fracking industry. The process depends on forcing huge quantities of chemical-dosed water into underground rock layers, thus hopefully releasing methane gas and/or oil.

Water UK and the UK Onshore Operators Group (UKOOG) have various mind-bending ideas about how to tackle this little problem. They could tanker water from elsewhere, they suggest. Or – hey, how about the sea? Injecting vast doses of salt water into the underlying strata of the southern counties could raise a few worries. What happens to the polluted, chemical-heavy discharge water that has to be collected at the terminal end of the process? It is too toxic to be allowed in contact with the land, and let us not even imagine that it can be dumped back in the ocean.

Meanwhile, plans for a £4bn windfarm in the Bristol Channel have been shelved. It gets madder.