There is a curious parallel between these two stories. The shale gas which could potentially provide Britain with cheap energy for hundreds of years (and has already halved the price of gas in the US), is extracted by injecting water and chemicals to fracture rocks thousands of feet below the ground (hence the term “fracking”). This allows the gas to escape, to be piped back up to the surface. The Government’s permission for this to be done in Britain promoted hysteria from the greenies, who warned that it could cause “earthquakes” and cited a film, Gasland, made by an American green activist. The film claims that methane from fracking can get into groundwater (way above where the gas is embedded in the rock) and shows someone setting light to the water coming from a kitchen tap.