FRACKING for shale gas has transformed energy supply in the US, brought down prices and reduced the need for imports of other fossil fuels. It is already contributing massively to economic recovery in the US. Self-sufficiency in the provision of energy is bound to have profound consequences for US foreign policy too and lead to a revolution in geo-political power balances.

The ramifications are new and uncertain, but it is clear that in the matter of energy supply at least, the development of shale gas resources is very good news. It is probable that Britain has huge resources of shale gas and that its exploitation could greatly help resolve our energy crisis. Good news, eh?

But wait, here comes the Chief Luddite – sorry, I mean of course Roger Harrabin, the BBC’s environment analyst – to rubbish the idea. He reports parliament’s Energy and Climate Change Committee’s scepticism: “The benefits of shale gas are not assured and may not reduce prices. Britain’s geography is different from that of the US and there is greater public scepticism here.”

Well, to quote Mandy Rice Davies. “They would say that, wouldn’t they?” The Climate Change Committee is our resident coven of global warming berserkers who, in their obsession with “reducing our carbon footprint,”

will fly anywhere in the world – especially in the face of reason. I don’t know whether shale gas will solve our energy crisis, but the evidence from the experience of other countries is encouraging. At least it’s worth a try.

The committee will do all in its considerable power to prevent it. Its main conclusion, dutifully reported by Harrabin, is that for us to go in for shale gas in a big way will cause us greatly to exceed our treaty commitments to reduce the output of carbon dioxide. This ignores the fact that the link between carbon dioxide content and global warming has been exposed as fallacious: over the past 15 years carbon dioxide content has increased while temperatures have either remained the same or actually gone down.

Harrabin’s report quotes all the usual amalgamations and coteries of misanthropic crackpots whose aim is to send civilisation back to the Stone Age. For example. Tony Bosworth, from Friends of the Earth, responded to the report: “This does little to back the case for a UK shale gas revolution.

“Fracking is dirty and unnecessary – it’s little wonder so many communities are in opposition.

We should be building an affordable power system based on our abundant clean energy from the wind, waves and sun.”

And Jenny Banks, from World Wildlife Fund UK, said: “It’s simply impossible to keep global warming below 2C and burn all known fossil fuel reserves – let alone exploit unconventional reserves like shale gas. In other words, the climate impacts of new fossil fuel developments must be front and centre of any decision on shale gas, not a secondary concern.”

So powerful is the Luddite lobby that it is likely to hinder, and perhaps even altogether put an end to, the exploitation of shale gas in Britain. Their efforts to rubbish other areas of energy resource have been spectacularly successful. This is why there are delays and confusion over deep oil exploration, clean coal and nuclear. Their objections are quite literally, all wind and water with a touch of the sun.

So what will happen? The lights will go out.

And the tribes of the earth will take to fighting one another in the cold and the dark.