Shale gas could be the answer to our impending energy problems and deserves to be carefully and urgently investigated.

It is a mightily expensive operation and the government’s decision to cut by more than half the tax on production is to be welcomed.

We literally face the prospect of the lights going out soon, thanks to previous governments’ ineptitude in planning for the future, so no wonder this tax cut has been devised.

Meanwhile, surprise, surprise the ‘green’ mob, including, inevitably, Friends of the Earth, are up in arms, concerned about the impact on the British countryside.

In many areas, including my own, they are too late – the countryside has already been devastated by useless ugly wind turbines (which, as we all know, the greenies love).

I don’t want to see this country further defaced but the fracking option must be throughly explored.

Paul Nuttall, UKIP North West MEP.