COUNCILLOR Gareth Dadd clearly thinks that fracking will solve the UK’s energy security problem when he refers to the prospect of “sitting in the dark in cold baths” (Echo, Mar 20).

This demonstrates a worrying lack of understanding of the timescales involved in energy security.

Ofgem and the National Grid both point to the crunch in energy supply happening in the winter of 2015-16 when they forecast energy efficiency and renewable energy starting to plug the gap left behind by retired coal plants.

Shale gas will not happen in the UK on a large scale until the early 2020s at the very earliest.

And the shale gas industry is very unclear how much it is going to extract.

Government support for shale gas, instead of resolving the UK’s energy security, is actually muddying the waters for investment in the clean, renewable energy sources that can, and should, sort the problem out.

Shale gas and fracking brings multiple risks for our local environment and quality of life and our efforts to tackle climate change. Add to this, the fact that it does nothing for energy security and increasing fuel bills, and you can see why Friends of the Earth think it’s a really bad idea.

Simon Bowens Yorkshire and Humber Friends of the Earth.