David Cameron has said he favours cash payments to individual households in compensation for inconvenience caused by shale gas drilling near their properties.
The idea is under consideration as part of a package of financial incentives to encourage communities to accept a new wave of “fracking” wells, which Mr Cameron said could supply Britain’s gas needs for the next 30 years and create 74,000 jobs.
The prime minister said that shale gas represents a “real opportunity” for the UK, and accused some opponents of being driven by an “irrational” reluctance to see any new carbon-based energy technology succeed.
He said that he was resisting pressure to set a carbon reduction target for 2030 because he believes that advances in technologies like carbon capture and storage may cut emissions from fossil fuels like shale gas – something which he acknowledged had caused friction with Liberal Democrat coalition partners, who were more “gung-ho” on the issue.
Answering questions from the Commons liaison committee, Mr Cameron said that there would be “a serious amount of money” going into communities which accept shale gas wells, though it had not yet been decided how it should be split between county, district and parish councils.
And he said the government was also considering “whether, because of the disturbance in the early part of a well being dug, there should be cash payments to householders. Actually saying to people ‘there’s going to be this small well drilling for shale gas and in order to make up for any inconvenience here is a cash payment’.”
Meanwhile, David Cameron has said it would be a “huge mistake” to ignore the potential of a pioneering green energy technology due to be developed in the north-east.
The Conservative leader spoke yesterday of the key role that carbon capture and storage could play in addressing the country’s future energy challenges.
Shell and SEE are planning to build the world’s first full-scale CCS project at a gas-fired power station in Peterhead, with the scheme expected to create almost 1,000 jobs and win hundreds of millions of pounds from a UK Government funding pot.
About 10million tonnes of harmful CO would be captured at the site and stored in a depleted North Sea gas field 62 miles offshore.
Mr Cameron revealed yesterday that the main reason the government has not set a target for slashing carbon emissions was because he believes CCS could significantly cut the damage caused by carbon.