Experts warn that a replication of the US shale experience is impossible in the UK, that the former may be a hype potentially endangering economic recovery. The US industry is beginning to disclose they are making losses; the UK industry needed a 30% tax rate offer in order to consider shale gas exploration. Regardless, fracking is promoted as a means to energy security and economic growth.
Through a concise data and literature review, including Energy White Papers as decision-making framework, this paper argues that a decision on fracking is undertaken for many reasons, but not for economic rationality, and neither solely due to the power of interest groups. It researches whether fracking simply fits the bill, is so compatible with the current framework of ideas around energy policy, that engaging in it becomes a logical conclusion, whereas not to engage in it would require a paradigmatic change.
