0:00:07 > 0:00:12I'm Iain Stewart and I'm on the trail of what is perhaps
0:00:12 > 0:00:16the most important geological story right now.
0:00:19 > 0:00:23The quest for a new source of power found deep beneath the earth...
0:00:26 > 0:00:29..which could change the lives of us all.
0:00:32 > 0:00:36Its discovery has sparked a rush for energy in America...
0:00:37 > 0:00:42..for a type of gas that appears cheap and plentiful.
0:00:46 > 0:00:49And with just one way of getting it out the ground -
0:00:49 > 0:00:53hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking".
0:00:53 > 0:00:56What is this energy lifeline that's shaping up to be
0:00:56 > 0:00:58the saviour of America?
0:00:58 > 0:01:02As a geologist I want to know what it means for the planet, and for us.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11'I'm going to meet some of the people who have become rich from
0:01:11 > 0:01:14'this new energy rush.'
0:01:14 > 0:01:17This one here looks like a vehicle bought with gas money.
0:01:17 > 0:01:19We see something we want, we buy it.
0:01:19 > 0:01:23'And the communities who are worried about the potential
0:01:23 > 0:01:24'risks of fracking.'
0:01:24 > 0:01:27Oh, gosh, look at that!
0:01:27 > 0:01:29- Would I want to drink that every day?- Yeah.
0:01:29 > 0:01:31If I lived in this house, absolutely not.
0:01:31 > 0:01:34'I've come to America to find out what fracking is,
0:01:34 > 0:01:37'why it's a potential game-changer
0:01:37 > 0:01:42'and to see what we in Britain can learn from the American experience.'
0:01:56 > 0:01:59MUSIC: "Ain't Wastin' Time No More" by The Allman Brothers
0:02:18 > 0:02:22'I'm starting off in the eastern state of Pennsylvania.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30'The people here have long looked to the rocks that surround them
0:02:30 > 0:02:33'for new sources of power and wealth.'
0:02:41 > 0:02:44What's wonderful about geology, really, is this feeling
0:02:44 > 0:02:47that you can read the rocks, read the landscape,
0:02:47 > 0:02:51every valley and hill tells a story about the planet's past.
0:02:53 > 0:02:55And if you go back far enough,
0:02:55 > 0:02:58this region here was once swampy forest.
0:02:58 > 0:03:02And that's left its legacy in the thick coal deposits that underlie
0:03:02 > 0:03:06this area, that's made Pennsylvania famous, made it rich.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10And that's the point, really, is that the towns
0:03:10 > 0:03:13and cities that have flourished here in the past,
0:03:13 > 0:03:18their success was down to the rocks and the minerals beneath their feet.
0:03:24 > 0:03:28'The glory days of coal lie in the past here,
0:03:28 > 0:03:32'but the people are now returning to the earth for a new
0:03:32 > 0:03:34'and controversial source of power.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40'It too comes from deep underground.'
0:03:40 > 0:03:42There it is.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45'And it's starting to make the state rich once again.'
0:03:45 > 0:03:49Just glinting through the trees there.
0:03:58 > 0:04:01That's what I've come to see, a live drilling platform.
0:04:04 > 0:04:06There's something like a thousand of these drilling sites
0:04:06 > 0:04:08scattered across Pennsylvania
0:04:08 > 0:04:11because this site is the epicentre of an industrial
0:04:11 > 0:04:16renaissance in America, one that's creating tens of thousands of jobs,
0:04:16 > 0:04:20because things like these are looking for a new form of energy.
0:04:20 > 0:04:25For some, the great hope of the future - shale gas.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34'It doesn't come out easily, this shale gas,
0:04:34 > 0:04:40'but a new form of extraction, a new technology has made it possible to collect.
0:04:46 > 0:04:50'It's called hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking."
0:04:53 > 0:04:56'And we're all going to be hearing a lot more about it.'
0:04:59 > 0:05:03Let me try and convey to you what hydraulic fracturing is.
0:05:03 > 0:05:09If you imagined that this here is the ground surface, where we
0:05:09 > 0:05:12are standing now, and that this is a drill.
0:05:12 > 0:05:18The drill goes down vertically and it's going down ultimately about
0:05:18 > 0:05:22two miles but the point is that when it gets down at depth, it can do
0:05:22 > 0:05:27something really clever, starts to bend round and it goes horizontal.
0:05:27 > 0:05:31And then what happens is you inject down millions of gallons
0:05:31 > 0:05:35of water, tonnes of sand, some chemicals all the way down here,
0:05:35 > 0:05:41and that fractures open naturally occurring cracks in the rock
0:05:41 > 0:05:46and you create these fracks, and that allows gas that's been
0:05:46 > 0:05:50locked away in the rock to leak out and then move back to the surface.
0:06:03 > 0:06:07'This tangle of high-pressure pipes is the reason we're now able
0:06:07 > 0:06:09'to extract the gas.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15'Because drilling on its own doesn't release the gas.
0:06:15 > 0:06:18'It's trapped in the rocks.
0:06:18 > 0:06:23'You need to pump water under very high pressure deep underground.
0:06:23 > 0:06:28'That fractures the bedrock and the gas can then be collected
0:06:28 > 0:06:30'and pumped to the surface.
0:06:30 > 0:06:36'It's a big engineering project and it's only possible
0:06:36 > 0:06:39'because of millions of gallons of water
0:06:39 > 0:06:43'and chemicals that are added to keep the process lubricated.'
0:06:45 > 0:06:48What's really clever is you can do that again and again.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51You can have another well that comes down and does that,
0:06:51 > 0:06:54another one that comes across this way, another one here.
0:06:54 > 0:06:56You could do 10, 20, whatever.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00And so it's this combination of horizontal drilling
0:07:00 > 0:07:04and also this hydraulic fracturing of rock that has created
0:07:04 > 0:07:07this gas revolution.
0:07:10 > 0:07:12'What all of this has done is given us
0:07:12 > 0:07:17'access to vast reserves of gas we previously could not reach,
0:07:17 > 0:07:21'and that has led to a full-scale dash for gas.'
0:07:28 > 0:07:33This is a ten-well pad, we have ten wells on this particular pad,
0:07:33 > 0:07:35six of which go out this way
0:07:35 > 0:07:37and four of which go out that way.
0:07:37 > 0:07:38So how far would they go?
0:07:38 > 0:07:42- Would they go beyond that hill there?- Oh, much further. - Really?- Yeah.
0:07:42 > 0:07:43Way, way beyond there.
0:07:43 > 0:07:46It's about a mile-and-a-half long outward under the ground
0:07:46 > 0:07:50- and about a mile-and-a-half deep. - Right.
0:07:50 > 0:07:52You know, it's the scale of it.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55I'm looking round, I can just see stuff everywhere.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58I mean, huge amounts of water, of sand,
0:07:58 > 0:08:01of material - of labour, as well, going into these things.
0:08:01 > 0:08:03They are huge investments aren't they?
0:08:03 > 0:08:04There is, there's a lot.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07There's great investment that takes place.
0:08:07 > 0:08:10This frack spread probably cost anywhere from 30 million to 50 million
0:08:10 > 0:08:13to put on just for the capital.
0:08:29 > 0:08:30'But as a geologist,
0:08:30 > 0:08:33'I'm interested in how they've been able to achieve all this.
0:08:37 > 0:08:41'And the technology that's made it possible in the first place.'
0:08:48 > 0:08:50So what are we looking at?
0:08:50 > 0:08:53The top of the grey, that's essentially the ground level, is it?
0:08:53 > 0:08:55The top of the grey is essentially the ground level.
0:08:55 > 0:08:57And then that's the drill hole coming down?
0:08:59 > 0:09:03'They can identify with pinpoint accuracy the fracks that occurred
0:09:03 > 0:09:08'deep underground when high pressure water is injected into the shale.'
0:09:10 > 0:09:15They're the pops and the cracks that occurred as we stimulated
0:09:15 > 0:09:18the reservoirs, so we had geophones down the well bores listening
0:09:18 > 0:09:21to it so that we could then locate where all this was happening.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24So you can hear the pops seven thousand feet below you?
0:09:24 > 0:09:27That's incredible, isn't it? Look at that.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30And it gives us an idea as to how much of the rock we've stimulated
0:09:30 > 0:09:32so we can figure out just about how much of an area we're
0:09:32 > 0:09:36going to drain with the natural gas coming back through the well bore.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39What I find extraordinary is this is you imaging things,
0:09:39 > 0:09:44tiny things going on, thousands of feet beneath our kind of feet?
0:09:44 > 0:09:46Yeah, exactly, it's pretty cool.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49And it's actually a kind of subterranean world that
0:09:49 > 0:09:51really no-one else sees.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53You're the only person, people that really see this?
0:09:53 > 0:09:56The first time you see the 3-D seismic is the first time
0:09:56 > 0:10:00anyone's actually ever seen what the geology looks like 7,000, 8,000 feet under the earth.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07'The United States has been leading the quest to extract shale gas.
0:10:10 > 0:10:13'You can quickly see why some might find it attractive.
0:10:13 > 0:10:17'It's unlocked a new source of power from the planet.
0:10:36 > 0:10:39'But shale gas is not unique to America.
0:10:40 > 0:10:45'Other countries, including Britain, are looking to follow.
0:10:47 > 0:10:51'And to better understand the nature of shale, I've returned home...
0:10:54 > 0:10:56'..to the Peak District, in Derbyshire.
0:11:06 > 0:11:10'As ever, we're drawing upon pockets of energy laid down
0:11:10 > 0:11:15'millions of years ago, which stretch right across the planet.'
0:11:31 > 0:11:37So, to explore the origins of shale, I'm going underground.
0:12:05 > 0:12:07I love places like this.
0:12:08 > 0:12:11I think it's why I became a geologist actually, the idea of
0:12:11 > 0:12:16exploring the nooks and crannies of the planet, you know, kind of
0:12:16 > 0:12:21peeling back the skin and just diving in, understanding how things work.
0:12:23 > 0:12:27And also that feeling that you're seeing a world,
0:12:27 > 0:12:31a hidden world, that very few other people see or appreciate.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34You know, we're only 50 metres below the surface
0:12:34 > 0:12:39but we've gone back 350 million years.
0:12:41 > 0:12:44'All that time ago, where I'm walking now,
0:12:44 > 0:12:47'in fact, the rocks beneath what we call the Midlands,
0:12:47 > 0:12:51'was at the bottom of a warm, tropical sea.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58'A sea crucial to the story of shale gas,
0:12:58 > 0:13:03'and evidence for that ancient, vanished water world is everywhere.'
0:13:05 > 0:13:07This is such a great place!
0:13:07 > 0:13:10Every so often, you get these tantalising glimpses
0:13:10 > 0:13:14of how the rock used to be, forensic clues, if you like.
0:13:14 > 0:13:16I mean, they're everywhere and there's a really nice bit,
0:13:16 > 0:13:19actually, there's a cracker just here.
0:13:19 > 0:13:23I'm going to get muddy now, but... see if I can get up here.
0:13:23 > 0:13:25Look at this! Look at that!
0:13:25 > 0:13:30You can see this texture here amid all this smearing
0:13:30 > 0:13:34and that is a huge, branching coral.
0:13:34 > 0:13:38Look at how it goes. That's huge.
0:13:38 > 0:13:42And lots and lots of debris, shale debris around.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45In the modern seas, coral reefs are
0:13:45 > 0:13:48the centrepieces of marine eco-systems
0:13:48 > 0:13:53and they were exactly the same 350 million years ago.
0:13:53 > 0:13:59This tells us that the carboniferous seas were just teeming with life.
0:14:04 > 0:14:08'But it wasn't just the sea that was rich with life.
0:14:08 > 0:14:10'The land was, too.
0:14:15 > 0:14:17'It was covered in tropical rainforest,
0:14:17 > 0:14:22'with lush vegetation and trees up to a hundred feet high.
0:14:24 > 0:14:28'Plant life which is equally important to the story of shale.'
0:14:30 > 0:14:33The nearest coast was over in that direction.
0:14:33 > 0:14:35There was lagoons and swamps
0:14:35 > 0:14:39and a huge delta that kind of swept decaying tree and plant material
0:14:39 > 0:14:43down into this, which would have been the ocean.
0:14:43 > 0:14:48I've got a sample of rock that you would find here. Look at this.
0:14:48 > 0:14:50You can see all the plant material, the leaves,
0:14:50 > 0:14:53the ferns, absolutely gorgeous.
0:14:53 > 0:14:57And so you've got all this decaying plant material deposited
0:14:57 > 0:15:00alongside decaying sea creatures like we saw in the cave
0:15:00 > 0:15:03and plankton and bacteria, and they all become this
0:15:03 > 0:15:07kind of organic mush that ends up embedded in this shale rock.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10So inside this shale rock you've got
0:15:10 > 0:15:12these little pockets of organic material
0:15:12 > 0:15:15that gets cooked up and transformed into shale gas,
0:15:15 > 0:15:21and it's this shale gas that's getting touted as the saviour of the planet.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33'I want to see for myself this ancient rock that contains
0:15:33 > 0:15:34'the shale gas.
0:15:36 > 0:15:40'So I'm off to visit a fellow geologist
0:15:40 > 0:15:41'who really knows this rock.
0:15:53 > 0:15:55'In a series of warehouses,
0:15:55 > 0:16:00'the British Geological Survey keeps 250 kilometres of core samples
0:16:00 > 0:16:04'from wells and boreholes all over Britain.
0:16:04 > 0:16:11'Brought down from a dusty top corner is the rock we're all talking about.'
0:16:13 > 0:16:15So is this it, this is the shale rock?
0:16:15 > 0:16:17- Yeah.- Oh, look at that. - It's pretty heavy.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20It IS heavy. So this has been taken out of a drill hole
0:16:20 > 0:16:22going down what depth roughly for this stuff?
0:16:22 > 0:16:24This one's down to about 500 metres,
0:16:24 > 0:16:26so about half a kilometre below the surface.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29I guess that's why it's so compact? The layers are kind of squeezed in.
0:16:29 > 0:16:33Yes, it's been crushed by a whole lot of rock, weighing down on it
0:16:33 > 0:16:36over a very long period of time, so it's pretty hard and compact stuff.
0:16:36 > 0:16:39The thing is the rocks that I normally associate with
0:16:39 > 0:16:42having gas in them are kind of sands and you can see the pores
0:16:42 > 0:16:44but here, completely different thing, isn't it?
0:16:44 > 0:16:47Yeah, this is so compact, so fine. You can't see anything.
0:16:47 > 0:16:49It's hard to believe there's gas in it at all.
0:16:49 > 0:16:51It's incredible, isn't it?
0:16:53 > 0:16:56'There's only one way to see what's trapped within the rock.
0:16:58 > 0:17:03'By scanning wafer-thin samples with a focused beam of electrons,
0:17:03 > 0:17:08'images are produced of the hidden world inside.'
0:17:10 > 0:17:13So we've got a scanning electron-microscope image here,
0:17:13 > 0:17:17a live picture, in fact, of a piece of shale.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20The darker things here are probably plant material.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23This might be a spore, for example, here, and what you're seeing here
0:17:23 > 0:17:28on these small, dark grey areas are pores, or holes between the particles,
0:17:28 > 0:17:32and it's in these holes or pores that the gas actually collects.
0:17:32 > 0:17:37Tiniest little pinpricks of space inside this really compact rock.
0:17:37 > 0:17:39Yeah, we're only talking about a micron across
0:17:39 > 0:17:42so a thousandth of a millimetre across. Very, very small.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47'This is the stuff that drilling companies are after,
0:17:47 > 0:17:51'essentially natural gas, but stuck in solid rock,
0:17:51 > 0:17:54'sometimes several kilometres beneath the surface of the earth.
0:17:55 > 0:17:59'No wonder it takes all that high-pressure water to get it out.
0:18:17 > 0:18:21'Shale gas isn't just found in remote deserts or beneath the sea,
0:18:21 > 0:18:24'places far away from our homes.
0:18:24 > 0:18:26'It's found under our backyards.
0:18:26 > 0:18:30'So it's not only an issue for the energy companies, it involves
0:18:30 > 0:18:35'whole communities and there seems to be winners and losers.'
0:18:35 > 0:18:37# On the other side of Jordan
0:18:37 > 0:18:41# There's construction on a mansion just for me... #
0:18:43 > 0:18:46Here in Louisiana, in America's Deep South,
0:18:46 > 0:18:49some appear to have benefited.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57'It has at times transformed the lives of ordinary farmers
0:18:57 > 0:19:02'because in the US, you can own the gas that lies under your land.'
0:19:05 > 0:19:10This whole region is sitting directly on top of the shale rock
0:19:10 > 0:19:13and it's the gas from that shale that's made
0:19:13 > 0:19:16some of the farmers here millionaires overnight,
0:19:16 > 0:19:21or as they're referred to here, "shalionaires."
0:19:26 > 0:19:30So what was the kind of sum, then, that you got?
0:19:30 > 0:19:32Well, I've got a copy of this...
0:19:32 > 0:19:35- You've got a copy of what...? - The cheque that they gave me!
0:19:35 > 0:19:37Let's have a look at that.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41And there it is, well, it's like 434,000.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44434,000.
0:19:44 > 0:19:47I don't think I've seen a figure as much, as high as that.
0:19:47 > 0:19:51'CB Leatherwood has made his fortune by selling
0:19:51 > 0:19:54'drilling rights on his farm.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59'And now the wells are producing, that lump sum is topped up
0:19:59 > 0:20:04'by a steady stream of royalty cheques popping into his mailbox.'
0:20:09 > 0:20:10And this right here is onions.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13- Spring onions, I recognise those. - Oh, yeah.
0:20:13 > 0:20:15'He's given money to his children
0:20:15 > 0:20:20'and it allows CB to live the life that he's always dreamed of.'
0:20:20 > 0:20:24I have about 30 mules and, I believe, seven horses.
0:20:26 > 0:20:28Got one for every occasion.
0:20:28 > 0:20:29This is nice, isn't it?
0:20:29 > 0:20:33This one here looks like a vehicle bought with gas money.
0:20:33 > 0:20:35Tell me, this one's beautiful.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38A Lincoln town car. We see something we want, we buy it.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50So what do you put all this good fortune down to?
0:20:50 > 0:20:52It was a gift from the good Lord.
0:20:52 > 0:20:54A gift from up above?
0:20:54 > 0:20:56- Gift from up above. - Not from down below, not from...
0:20:56 > 0:20:59- It was a gift from up above. - I'm a geologist, I would have it as a gift from geology
0:20:59 > 0:21:01but you have it from up there, upstairs.
0:21:01 > 0:21:03That's right, that's who made it for me.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17# I have a source
0:21:17 > 0:21:23# Of strength when I am weak... #
0:21:23 > 0:21:27So, I can understand that some people, if they've got mineral rights,
0:21:27 > 0:21:31and they've got gas underneath their land, they're benefiting.
0:21:31 > 0:21:33What about other people? How do they benefit from it?
0:21:33 > 0:21:38Well, bringing work into the country, communities.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42You've got...you bring the drilling rigs in to drill the wells.
0:21:42 > 0:21:44It furnishes jobs.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48You bring the people in to build the locations.
0:21:48 > 0:21:53Jobs were scarce, the economy wasn't too good before this came around.
0:21:53 > 0:21:55I mean, it was awfully slow.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59So if we were to do a kind of a poll of all the houses around here
0:21:59 > 0:22:01and all the people,
0:22:01 > 0:22:04what proportion do you think would be for shale gas, be positive?
0:22:04 > 0:22:06I'd say 90% of them.
0:22:06 > 0:22:08Really, as high as that?
0:22:30 > 0:22:32It was great to speak to CB today.
0:22:32 > 0:22:35I know what he says you have to take with a pinch of salt.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38He's made a lot of money on the back of shale gas, but what I thought was
0:22:38 > 0:22:41interesting was the idea the whole community had benefited,
0:22:41 > 0:22:45that the rewards had seeped through right to the bottom level.
0:22:54 > 0:22:59'But not everyone in a community sees cheques or jobs.
0:23:05 > 0:23:09'One of the objections has been that all that machinery involved -
0:23:09 > 0:23:15'the pipes, the lorries, the rigs, blights rural communities.
0:23:24 > 0:23:28'And fracking is now taking place across the US,
0:23:28 > 0:23:30'from sea to shining sea.
0:23:35 > 0:23:38'It's startling how widely it's already spread.'
0:23:43 > 0:23:45Take a look at this.
0:23:45 > 0:23:49You don't just find shale gas in Louisiana or Pennsylvania.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52You find it right across America.
0:23:52 > 0:23:56Energy companies reckon that there's more natural gas in America
0:23:56 > 0:23:59than there is oil in Saudi Arabia.
0:23:59 > 0:24:00I mean, look at it.
0:24:00 > 0:24:04It's estimated something like a million fracking wells, a million!
0:24:04 > 0:24:07Production or exploration in 30 states.
0:24:07 > 0:24:11Now, what all that means is an energy renaissance,
0:24:11 > 0:24:15cheap abundant energy right on their doorstep.
0:24:17 > 0:24:21'Geology may be a science, but it seldom happens in isolation.
0:24:23 > 0:24:28'It's tied up with politics, with economics
0:24:28 > 0:24:32'and you don't have to look far to see how fracking is starting
0:24:32 > 0:24:35'to change the politics and economics of this nation.'
0:25:02 > 0:25:04The thing is, it's looking like a game-changer.
0:25:04 > 0:25:07I mean, the price of gas in the US is something like a third
0:25:07 > 0:25:10of what it is in Britain, and that should be
0:25:10 > 0:25:14good for the American consumer, for American industry.
0:25:20 > 0:25:23But actually, there's already signs that that's happened.
0:25:23 > 0:25:27Those energy-hungry users, things like chemical plants,
0:25:27 > 0:25:30manufacturing firms, they're already starting to
0:25:30 > 0:25:33re-shore their operations
0:25:33 > 0:25:38and that's because the cheap labour in places like that is trumped by
0:25:38 > 0:25:42the cheap energy in places like this.
0:25:44 > 0:25:47'But there's another reason why fracking is being
0:25:47 > 0:25:51'talked of as a game-changer right across the world.
0:25:51 > 0:25:56'It's about how safe our energy supplies are, about energy security.'
0:26:02 > 0:26:05'To give you an idea why that matters, I'm going
0:26:05 > 0:26:08'to leave rocks and geology behind for a moment.
0:26:09 > 0:26:13'I've come back to Britain, to the nerve centre
0:26:13 > 0:26:16'of its National Grid, to get a sense of the bigger picture.
0:26:16 > 0:26:20'These are the people who have to ensure there's enough power -
0:26:20 > 0:26:23'from nuclear, coal, gas, renewables -
0:26:23 > 0:26:25to meet our energy needs,
0:26:25 > 0:26:29'and I've chosen a rather special moment to visit,
0:26:29 > 0:26:33'because tonight they're under pressure.'
0:26:33 > 0:26:36CHEERING
0:26:44 > 0:26:46'When Strictly Come Dancing ends,
0:26:46 > 0:26:49'millions of us will put the kettle on.'
0:26:51 > 0:26:52Ten!
0:26:54 > 0:26:59'And these guys need to bring on more power at that precise moment.'
0:26:59 > 0:27:01Eight.
0:27:03 > 0:27:07'What really fascinates me is how they choose to deliver it.
0:27:08 > 0:27:11'Hydro, water power.'
0:27:13 > 0:27:17What we have is a top lake and a bottom lake, so during the night,
0:27:17 > 0:27:19when electricity prices are cheap, we pump water up to the top lake
0:27:19 > 0:27:22and during the day, we just let the water come down again
0:27:22 > 0:27:26through the turbines to create electricity very quickly and flexibly.
0:27:26 > 0:27:29So, basically, as soon as electricity demand starts to rise,
0:27:29 > 0:27:32- you throw water at it? - We throw water at it, yes.
0:27:32 > 0:27:36Right, I'm going to ring the BBC controller now, Bernard,
0:27:36 > 0:27:38to see whether he's got an update on the Strictly end time.
0:27:38 > 0:27:40CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:27:40 > 0:27:43Hello, Jonathan, it's Neil Wise at National Grid.
0:27:47 > 0:27:49Thank you.
0:27:56 > 0:28:00'The closing minutes of Strictly are tense.'
0:28:02 > 0:28:06- This looks like the end.- OK.
0:28:09 > 0:28:12'They have to time the release of water precisely,
0:28:12 > 0:28:16'to match the sudden surge in demand for electricity.'
0:28:18 > 0:28:22Two seconds under, OK. Bye, now.
0:28:22 > 0:28:24CHEERING
0:28:26 > 0:28:28I think we're in business.
0:28:30 > 0:28:34'When the moment comes, Bernard opens the flood gates.
0:28:34 > 0:28:36I'll send the Foyers now...
0:28:39 > 0:28:41..and Cruachan as well.
0:28:44 > 0:28:51I think, probably do the Ffestiniog as well, there we go.
0:29:00 > 0:29:04'Demand begins to level off. They've made it.
0:29:21 > 0:29:24That was pretty impressive.
0:29:24 > 0:29:27I mean, watching those guys operate, watching them
0:29:27 > 0:29:30judge the moment-by-moment changes in demand and then match
0:29:30 > 0:29:34that against electricity generation from coal and from nuclear,
0:29:34 > 0:29:39from wind, and those injections of water - that's pretty special.
0:29:47 > 0:29:50The thing is, for decades that energy mix is what's kept
0:29:50 > 0:29:55the lights on in Britain, but things are changing.
0:29:59 > 0:30:03'If we want to continue to have this level of control in the future,
0:30:03 > 0:30:07'we're going to have to make sure we have the right energy mix
0:30:07 > 0:30:10'at the right price and at the right time.
0:30:20 > 0:30:24'You probably won't have heard of the Isle of Grain gas depot
0:30:24 > 0:30:26'in Kent, but the chances are you may have used
0:30:26 > 0:30:30'some of its gas to keep your house warm.
0:30:32 > 0:30:38'It's a good place to see why energy security is so important.'
0:30:42 > 0:30:45This is the biggest above-ground gas storage tank in Europe.
0:30:48 > 0:30:55Look at that! It's absolutely humungous. Let's get up there.
0:30:58 > 0:31:00Don't know if this is a good idea actually.
0:31:02 > 0:31:05'And it's not the only giant container here.'
0:31:08 > 0:31:09Ha!
0:31:13 > 0:31:17'In total, there are around a million cubic metres of gas.'
0:31:20 > 0:31:22More steps!
0:31:22 > 0:31:26'That may sound a lot, but we're an energy-hungry nation
0:31:26 > 0:31:30'and across Britain, we store only enough
0:31:30 > 0:31:33'for around two weeks of supplies.'
0:31:41 > 0:31:45Something like 40% of the electricity we get
0:31:45 > 0:31:47comes from burning gas,
0:31:47 > 0:31:50and in future years that's going to dramatically increase.
0:31:50 > 0:31:54But the thing is, you see the gas that's in there and in there
0:31:54 > 0:31:57and in there, it's not our gas.
0:31:57 > 0:31:58Let me show you.
0:31:58 > 0:32:02It comes from far, far away, brought in by ships like that.
0:32:06 > 0:32:08'And this is not just any old ship.
0:32:10 > 0:32:11'It helps keep Britain afloat.
0:32:15 > 0:32:18'More than half of our gas is imported,
0:32:22 > 0:32:25'a lot of it from one tiny country.'
0:32:27 > 0:32:30It's just like a massive wall of steel.
0:32:32 > 0:32:36Apparently, it's a quarter of a mile long from, bloody hell,
0:32:36 > 0:32:39from there all the way across right to the far end there.
0:32:41 > 0:32:43And this monster has come 7,000 miles.
0:32:43 > 0:32:47This is from Qatar, in the Middle East, right beside Iraq, to here.
0:32:48 > 0:32:52You can see the gas just getting taken off through these unloading pipes.
0:32:54 > 0:32:59There's enough gas in there to power 70,000 homes for a year.
0:33:09 > 0:33:12'We get our natural gas from countries in the Middle East,
0:33:12 > 0:33:15'from Africa and from Russia,
0:33:17 > 0:33:20'so the political uncertainties are obvious.
0:33:28 > 0:33:31'And we're also subject to the vagaries of the market.'
0:33:35 > 0:33:39Those beasts seem so slow and lumbering
0:33:39 > 0:33:43but they operate in this fast-paced environment.
0:33:43 > 0:33:46I mean, for a start, there's no guarantee that ship will
0:33:46 > 0:33:49ever reach its intended destination.
0:33:49 > 0:33:52It might get diverted, mid-ocean, from Europe to Asia, just
0:33:52 > 0:33:56because there's someone there that will pay a higher price for gas.
0:33:58 > 0:34:01And that's the nub of the problem, really.
0:34:01 > 0:34:05There is no absolute energy security with ships like that.
0:34:09 > 0:34:15'That's what we, and all countries, mean by energy security -
0:34:15 > 0:34:20'the ability to have certain supplies of gas at a price they can control and afford.
0:34:22 > 0:34:27'And that's the other attraction of fracking. It's home-grown energy.
0:34:37 > 0:34:41'Many here in America have become almost heady with the potential
0:34:41 > 0:34:46'of fracking, for its economic benefits and energy security.'
0:34:47 > 0:34:51As a geologist, you're only too aware that the planet
0:34:51 > 0:34:56can change our world either for the better or for the worse, and there's
0:34:56 > 0:34:59something in these hills that... a niggling thought that something's
0:34:59 > 0:35:03not quite right, that there's more to this than meets the eye.
0:35:05 > 0:35:09'There's a lot of questions being asked about fracking.
0:35:09 > 0:35:13'Some are about whether we should be investing in another
0:35:13 > 0:35:15'carbon-based form of energy at all,
0:35:15 > 0:35:20'and over the next few years, this charged debate is going to unfold.
0:35:20 > 0:35:25'But what I want to look at now are some of the more immediate risks.
0:35:39 > 0:35:43'I'm back in Pennsylvania, in the foothills of the Endless Mountains.
0:35:43 > 0:35:47'It's a good place to get to grips with one of the concerns
0:35:47 > 0:35:50'I'm most interested in trying to understand.
0:35:57 > 0:36:00'The risks that gas and contaminated water
0:36:00 > 0:36:03'might be leaking out of the wells into the surrounding land.'
0:36:07 > 0:36:10For months now, I've been reading solidly about fracking, just about
0:36:10 > 0:36:13everything I can find, especially on the internet,
0:36:13 > 0:36:15and if you go onto the internet,
0:36:15 > 0:36:18what you find a lot of the stuff is about, you know,
0:36:18 > 0:36:23people falling ill and the health effects of it and you can't really
0:36:23 > 0:36:27find very much in the scientific literature about this, so what
0:36:27 > 0:36:31I'm really interested in is finding a bit more about this, and actually,
0:36:31 > 0:36:35it's been surprisingly difficult to find someone to talk about it.
0:36:38 > 0:36:41'That's because I've heard that some people who have fallen ill
0:36:41 > 0:36:45'have received compensation and aren't allowed to talk about it.'
0:36:45 > 0:36:50But I'm hoping today, up in these hills we're going to find
0:36:50 > 0:36:53'a couple who are very happy to talk about it
0:36:53 > 0:36:56'because they're in a bad way, apparently.'
0:37:21 > 0:37:22Hello?
0:37:25 > 0:37:29- Hi, are you Janet?- Yeah.
0:37:29 > 0:37:32- I'm a very wet Iain. Hiya, how are you? - Welcome, come in.- Thank you.
0:37:34 > 0:37:37When did you first hear that word, "fracking"?
0:37:37 > 0:37:39How many years ago was it?
0:37:39 > 0:37:41Two, at least 2½ years ago.
0:37:41 > 0:37:44- Just as recently as that - two or three years ago?- Yeah.
0:37:44 > 0:37:46I didn't really pay attention, you know,
0:37:46 > 0:37:49until we got affected,
0:37:49 > 0:37:54and then once we got affected, then you begin to wonder why.
0:37:55 > 0:37:58That's when I actually looked at the word "fracking."
0:37:58 > 0:38:00- Right.- You know what I mean?
0:38:00 > 0:38:02Like, how could this have happened to us?
0:38:02 > 0:38:09'Janet and Fred McIntyre live in a remote area of rural Pennsylvania.
0:38:09 > 0:38:13'Two years ago, the energy companies arrived and began to frack for gas.
0:38:15 > 0:38:20'Shortly afterward, the McIntyres and some of their neighbours fell ill.
0:38:25 > 0:38:29'They fear that it might be connected to fracking,
0:38:29 > 0:38:33'that somehow chemicals might have leaked into their drinking water.
0:38:35 > 0:38:40'And they're now struggling to understand what is happening to them and their community.'
0:38:41 > 0:38:46We got the flu, well, what we thought was the flu, got horribly ill,
0:38:46 > 0:38:51violently ill and we were like that for a week.
0:38:55 > 0:38:58'Because of their concerns,
0:38:58 > 0:39:01'the McIntyres only use bottled water now,
0:39:01 > 0:39:04'for drinking, washing and cooking.
0:39:06 > 0:39:09'The US Department of Environmental Protection
0:39:09 > 0:39:13'and the energy companies themselves tested their drinking water
0:39:13 > 0:39:18'and they gave it a clean bill of health.
0:39:18 > 0:39:20'But the McIntyres are unconvinced.
0:39:22 > 0:39:25'It's a confusing picture.
0:39:25 > 0:39:28'We simply don't have the scientific evidence that separates out
0:39:28 > 0:39:32'coincidence from a direct cause.'
0:39:33 > 0:39:39Since they began drilling here, I suffer from seizures
0:39:40 > 0:39:47and through all this, right before our water turned purple,
0:39:47 > 0:39:50I went into renal failure.
0:39:50 > 0:39:53So it's quite a lot of completely different things, it's not just...
0:39:53 > 0:39:57Yeah, it seems to affect the very old, the very young and
0:39:57 > 0:40:03if you have like a low immune system or you're sick, you really get sick.
0:40:03 > 0:40:06These things have happened to me.
0:40:06 > 0:40:08You can't prove it scientifically, that,
0:40:08 > 0:40:12but you're convinced, are you?
0:40:12 > 0:40:13It just seems weird.
0:40:24 > 0:40:28'Around 50 people in their community now only use
0:40:28 > 0:40:31'water from bottles, and paid for by charity,
0:40:31 > 0:40:36'which Janet helps to deliver to isolated friends and neighbours.'
0:40:37 > 0:40:40- Hi, there, how are you?- Hi, there. - What's your name?- Iain.
0:40:40 > 0:40:41Iain, OK.
0:40:41 > 0:40:44All the way from Scotland, to deliver your water.
0:40:44 > 0:40:46Oh, bless you!
0:40:46 > 0:40:47Six of these?
0:40:47 > 0:40:49HE GROANS
0:40:49 > 0:40:53We've good water but it's contaminated now.
0:41:03 > 0:41:07I've lived here since eight years old and now they're ruining it.
0:41:07 > 0:41:09Where do you want it?
0:41:09 > 0:41:12The water stinks. The animals won't drink it.
0:41:12 > 0:41:14I don't drink the water any more,
0:41:16 > 0:41:22and I have a hard time swallowing and breathing, and there's nothing they can do.
0:41:29 > 0:41:33So do you know anyone around here, any of these houses,
0:41:33 > 0:41:36that actually have decent water from their boreholes?
0:41:36 > 0:41:40They used to but they're all on the water run.
0:41:40 > 0:41:43They go to the water bank or...
0:41:43 > 0:41:45They're all going to your water bank?
0:41:45 > 0:41:48Yeah. That one, that one, that one, that one.
0:41:49 > 0:41:54That one, that one, this one,
0:41:54 > 0:41:58that one, myself over there, beside me.
0:41:58 > 0:42:00They're all...
0:42:00 > 0:42:01- Everyone, basically.- Yeah.
0:42:05 > 0:42:10'What I've found here is a community that's become afraid of fracking.
0:42:18 > 0:42:21'But what I think it is that feeds their fear is that it's
0:42:21 > 0:42:25'easier to ask questions than to get hard answers.'
0:42:33 > 0:42:38You know, a number of people have said that fracking has ruined their
0:42:38 > 0:42:41water but the trouble is that good, solid, scientific evidence is pretty
0:42:41 > 0:42:45thin on the ground, and what makes it even more complicated is that
0:42:45 > 0:42:50gases like methane, for example, can occur naturally in drinking water.
0:42:50 > 0:42:54What mining bosses say is that incidents of contamination
0:42:54 > 0:42:58are few and far between and the result of accidental chemical
0:42:58 > 0:43:03spillage on the surface or not quite casing the drill holes properly.
0:43:03 > 0:43:06In other words, that they're the result of shoddy practice,
0:43:06 > 0:43:08not fracking.
0:43:14 > 0:43:17'Although there are no national figures,
0:43:17 > 0:43:21'here in Pennsylvania some 6-7% of wells have reported what's
0:43:21 > 0:43:26'termed "well failures" in each of the past three years.
0:43:27 > 0:43:29'But what we don't know is
0:43:29 > 0:43:33'if those problems have led to ground water contamination.
0:43:33 > 0:43:37'To make things even more complicated, US fracking companies
0:43:37 > 0:43:41'have been reluctant to disclose exactly what chemicals they use.'
0:43:43 > 0:43:45You know, the thing about the fracking chemicals is
0:43:45 > 0:43:48that, in America, they're proprietary,
0:43:48 > 0:43:50so that they're a closely guarded secret,
0:43:50 > 0:43:51each company with their own particular mix
0:43:51 > 0:43:55that they don't want the others to know about, so it's like a secret
0:43:55 > 0:43:59recipe, really, like the ingredients of HP Sauce or Coca Cola.
0:44:01 > 0:44:03In fact, even the guys that are handling
0:44:03 > 0:44:07the chemicals on the fracking job might not know what
0:44:07 > 0:44:10the particular chemicals are, and it's that secrecy that really
0:44:10 > 0:44:14is at the heart of, I think, most people's suspicions,
0:44:14 > 0:44:17that it's somehow, you know, a nasty, noxious cocktail of stuff.
0:44:26 > 0:44:30'A new law in Pennsylvania does allow physicians special access to
0:44:30 > 0:44:34'information about the trade's secret chemicals,
0:44:34 > 0:44:36'but it's not straightforward.
0:44:43 > 0:44:47'Dr Amy Pare has treated people with lesions to their faces who
0:44:47 > 0:44:52'she thinks may have been exposed to the fracking chemicals,
0:44:52 > 0:44:55'and the drilling companies will only tell her what those chemicals
0:44:55 > 0:44:59'might be under stringent conditions.'
0:44:59 > 0:45:03Well, they'll reveal those if you sign a confidentiality statement.
0:45:03 > 0:45:05That's a lovely way, that's a Catch-22, isn't it?
0:45:05 > 0:45:09So you can sign the form that says you won't tell anyone else
0:45:09 > 0:45:10- and you know.- Right.
0:45:10 > 0:45:13What does that mean, you can't tell the patient?
0:45:13 > 0:45:15Oh, correct, you can't tell the patient,
0:45:15 > 0:45:17so, say I suspected that you had been exposed to something.
0:45:17 > 0:45:21If it's on a regular inhalational panel, fine,
0:45:21 > 0:45:26but if you just can't figure out what exactly it was, you would sign
0:45:26 > 0:45:29the confidentiality statement which is for these proprietary chemicals.
0:45:29 > 0:45:33They say that they'll release the chemicals that they may have
0:45:33 > 0:45:36been exposed to and then if those tests come back positive,
0:45:36 > 0:45:38I can't tell you about it.
0:45:38 > 0:45:41So, can you tell my doctor? Can you tell anyone else?
0:45:41 > 0:45:45No, I mean, I'm a plastic surgeon so I would refer you to
0:45:45 > 0:45:49an occupational medicine doctor but I would just refer you.
0:45:49 > 0:45:52So you couldn't then pass the information on to that
0:45:52 > 0:45:55person of what, the information that you'd found?
0:45:55 > 0:45:57No, I would refer you because it's a proprietary chemical.
0:45:57 > 0:45:59It's a trade secret, so...
0:45:59 > 0:46:03But essentially this is a gagging order placed right across you,
0:46:03 > 0:46:05isn't it?
0:46:05 > 0:46:07So, for physicians, in order to take care of your patients,
0:46:07 > 0:46:11there needs to be transparency and this completely breaks
0:46:11 > 0:46:16that down, and so, yes, it's very upsetting for us
0:46:16 > 0:46:19because you want people to get better but if you can't
0:46:19 > 0:46:23explain to someone what's happening to them, how do you get them better?
0:46:23 > 0:46:24And then how do you find out
0:46:24 > 0:46:27if other members of their family may have been exposed or other
0:46:27 > 0:46:29people that are in the area have been exposed?
0:46:29 > 0:46:32Because no-one can talk about it so it's,
0:46:32 > 0:46:35it really goes against any type of modern medicine.
0:46:43 > 0:46:47You know, the thing is, I'm not one for conspiracy theories or
0:46:47 > 0:46:52anything like that but this secrecy is just...weird, really.
0:46:52 > 0:46:56You know, as a kind of academic, as a scientist,
0:46:56 > 0:46:59you're wanting transparency.
0:46:59 > 0:47:00You want openness.
0:47:00 > 0:47:04I know it sounds cliched, but you're wanting the truth.
0:47:04 > 0:47:06What Amy is talking about here is just that.
0:47:06 > 0:47:10She just wants to know the data, the scientific data.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13And the fact that that's been
0:47:13 > 0:47:19kind of held back is just really exasperating.
0:47:19 > 0:47:23It's really frustrating to try and get to the bottom of most of these
0:47:23 > 0:47:27real, you know, controversies and what people want to know.
0:47:27 > 0:47:30They want to know, is it safe?
0:47:30 > 0:47:31We just don't know.
0:47:48 > 0:47:51'But there's one scientist who has carried out a number
0:47:51 > 0:47:56'of studies on the potential impact that fracking has on ground water.
0:48:04 > 0:48:08'Rob Jackson and his research team have tested
0:48:08 > 0:48:11'hundreds of samples from drinking water wells, like this
0:48:11 > 0:48:17'one in north-western Pennsylvania, for evidence of contamination.'
0:48:17 > 0:48:20So where's the water coming from?
0:48:20 > 0:48:23Well, this is coming from a private well for the house
0:48:23 > 0:48:28and it's coming from about 250 feet under the ground, and what Tom's
0:48:28 > 0:48:31doing there is just hooking the hose up and we'll purge the water, run it
0:48:31 > 0:48:35for a while to get a fresh water sample from that, from that well.
0:48:37 > 0:48:40'The water is from a shallow aquifer which provides drinking
0:48:40 > 0:48:45'water to the local community and, unusually, it's full of bubbles.'
0:48:47 > 0:48:49What we have here is basically a methane leak detector.
0:48:49 > 0:48:52This lets us determine if the bubbles we're seeing
0:48:52 > 0:48:54are related to air trapped in the water, if it's
0:48:54 > 0:48:57something combustible like methane or ethane. You'll see as we get.....
0:48:57 > 0:48:59- INSTRUMENT BUZZES - Wow!
0:48:59 > 0:49:02..Get closer, you know without a doubt this is basically methane
0:49:02 > 0:49:04that's coming from the water.
0:49:08 > 0:49:13'This drinking water is fizzing with gas,
0:49:13 > 0:49:18'so saturated that bubbles trapped in a bottle quickly build up
0:49:18 > 0:49:20'to worrying proportions.'
0:49:23 > 0:49:25Oh, there's a pop there!
0:49:32 > 0:49:34Look at that!
0:49:35 > 0:49:36It's burning.
0:49:36 > 0:49:39A flaming bottle of gas. That's a lot of methane.
0:49:39 > 0:49:42- You don't want that in your water, do you?- Certainly don't!
0:49:45 > 0:49:49'By analysing the different kinds of carbon
0:49:49 > 0:49:51'and hydrogen that make up methane gas, Rob
0:49:51 > 0:49:55'and his team are able to determine where this gas has come from.'
0:49:58 > 0:50:01Natural gas that's found underground and is formed under high heat
0:50:01 > 0:50:04and pressure, millions and millions of years ago,
0:50:04 > 0:50:06has a different fingerprint than natural gas
0:50:06 > 0:50:10formed in shallower layers by microbes, by biological activity.
0:50:12 > 0:50:16'Lab results are consistent with water that's come up to the
0:50:16 > 0:50:20'surface from the deep shale layer two miles underground.'
0:50:28 > 0:50:32This gas looks like what you find naturally in the Marcellus.
0:50:32 > 0:50:36The gas is actually mined by the companies for extraction.
0:50:36 > 0:50:39Right, so that's down at that level where the fracking's going on,
0:50:39 > 0:50:40- is it?- It is.
0:50:40 > 0:50:43- Could I drink this? - You could certainly drink it.
0:50:43 > 0:50:46I mean, yeah, all right, should I drink this?
0:50:46 > 0:50:50I don't know, I probably wouldn't be crazy about drinking it.
0:50:50 > 0:50:54I mean, apart from the bubbles, it looks pretty clear and all the rest of it.
0:50:54 > 0:50:57It does. I certainly wouldn't want to drink it regularly.
0:50:57 > 0:50:59Would I drink that now? Absolutely.
0:50:59 > 0:51:01But would you, would I want to drink that every day
0:51:01 > 0:51:03If I lived in this house? Absolutely not.
0:51:05 > 0:51:08'One of his studies found measurable amounts of methane
0:51:08 > 0:51:10'in 85% of the samples.
0:51:10 > 0:51:14'Now, methane can leak naturally from deep underground
0:51:14 > 0:51:17'but the pattern that Rob found is revealing.
0:51:17 > 0:51:21'He found levels that averaged 17 times higher
0:51:21 > 0:51:27'from water sources located within a kilometre of a natural gas well.'
0:51:27 > 0:51:30Yeah, there's no question that there are homes
0:51:30 > 0:51:32and historical data that show methane in people's water
0:51:32 > 0:51:35long ago, and there are stories going back
0:51:35 > 0:51:38generations of people being able to light their water naturally.
0:51:38 > 0:51:42I think what we see is that you have a much higher
0:51:42 > 0:51:46prevalence of that for people who are living near a natural gas well,
0:51:46 > 0:51:48so it's not that that doesn't occur,
0:51:48 > 0:51:51it's just it occurs a lot more often if you're near a gas well.
0:51:51 > 0:51:53So, the million dollar question, then -
0:51:53 > 0:51:55how is the gas getting to the surface?
0:51:56 > 0:51:59Well, we think the most likely pathway is through the well
0:51:59 > 0:52:03itself by drilling a hole into the ground, by not sealing it
0:52:03 > 0:52:07properly with cement or by using steel tubing where the joints
0:52:07 > 0:52:11aren't sealed, that it's actually kind of leaking out the well itself.
0:52:11 > 0:52:15Probably not what people are most concerned about
0:52:15 > 0:52:18and that's a direct communication from thousands of feet
0:52:18 > 0:52:21underground, all the way up to surface through the rock.
0:52:21 > 0:52:24So it's unlikely, then, that you frack, and that there's a fracture
0:52:24 > 0:52:27goes all the way up and gas starts to kind of follow it?
0:52:27 > 0:52:28Yeah, I think it's very unlikely.
0:52:28 > 0:52:31It's not impossible in an area even like this where you have
0:52:31 > 0:52:33natural fractures and fissures underground.
0:52:33 > 0:52:37A frack might connect to one of those natural fractures
0:52:37 > 0:52:39but in general, I think that's much less,
0:52:39 > 0:52:42much less likely than in a well that's constructed poorly.
0:52:45 > 0:52:48'If he's right, it suggests the problem here is not with
0:52:48 > 0:52:53'fracking deep underground but nearer the surface with well construction,
0:52:53 > 0:52:56'certainly when it comes to methane,
0:52:56 > 0:52:58'but he didn't find any evidence
0:52:58 > 0:53:03'there nor anywhere else that fracking fluid had leaked from a well.
0:53:03 > 0:53:10'It makes for a complex picture, one that's just starting to emerge.'
0:53:10 > 0:53:13So it sounds like there's lots and lots of questions,
0:53:13 > 0:53:15and, at the moment, very few answers.
0:53:15 > 0:53:17Yeah, there are a lot of unanswered questions
0:53:17 > 0:53:19but a lot of good people in different groups around
0:53:19 > 0:53:22the country and around the world trying to answer those questions.
0:53:29 > 0:53:32'And those questions are being asked around the world,
0:53:32 > 0:53:36'because other countries, including Britain, are set to follow
0:53:36 > 0:53:40'the Americans and start fracking,
0:53:40 > 0:53:42'because if you look at a geological
0:53:42 > 0:53:48'map of Britain, it's clear we have substantial reserves of shale gas.'
0:53:48 > 0:53:55So what we're seeing now is, flying over Britain, about maybe
0:53:55 > 0:53:57300 metres above the surface,
0:53:57 > 0:54:03and ahead of us you can see following the road, is Mam Tor.
0:54:03 > 0:54:05So this is where I was just the other day,
0:54:05 > 0:54:07walking around on that hill.
0:54:07 > 0:54:08What a great way to see it.
0:54:08 > 0:54:12And if we start to descend, now this is the beauty of this model...
0:54:13 > 0:54:15We crash through!
0:54:19 > 0:54:23That's the ground, looking from below, and what we see here is the
0:54:23 > 0:54:29bottom surface of the shale, and now you can see clearly this landscape,
0:54:29 > 0:54:33places where the shale is deep, places where the shale is shallow.
0:54:33 > 0:54:36Now we're coming out somewhere in the north of England,
0:54:36 > 0:54:38by the look of it.
0:54:38 > 0:54:44And what we have here is the Pennines, and to the right
0:54:44 > 0:54:47and the left or the east and west,
0:54:47 > 0:54:51the shale goes down deep underneath those areas, so into Lincolnshire
0:54:51 > 0:54:55and, for example, under Blackpool and under Lancashire,
0:54:55 > 0:54:59but also there's shale underneath these areas here, north of London
0:54:59 > 0:55:03then curling round south of London to Sussex and also into Hampshire.
0:55:03 > 0:55:07So a big question, really, how much shale gas is there?
0:55:07 > 0:55:10All I can say is we know a lot about how much shale there is
0:55:10 > 0:55:13but we don't quite know how much gas there is.
0:55:13 > 0:55:16But it looks to me that there's a lot of it.
0:55:16 > 0:55:17Yeah, there's a lot of shale
0:55:17 > 0:55:20so the chances are there's quite a lot of shale gas.
0:55:20 > 0:55:24'The go-ahead to frack has been given by the Government in Britain
0:55:24 > 0:55:28'but on a small scale, and it's going to happen differently here
0:55:28 > 0:55:32'in a legal and regulatory framework that's tougher than in the States.
0:55:32 > 0:55:36'For instance, in the UK, companies will have to disclose
0:55:36 > 0:55:38'what's in their fracking fluids.
0:55:40 > 0:55:42'But what I think British engineers
0:55:42 > 0:55:45'and scientists will have to convincingly demonstrate is not
0:55:45 > 0:55:51'just that they know the risks, but that they will manage them safely.
0:55:59 > 0:56:05'There is one risk that arose here that needs to be put into context.
0:56:05 > 0:56:09'When the first frack happened in Britain in 2011,
0:56:09 > 0:56:13'it triggered an earthquake, a small one, similar to the 300
0:56:13 > 0:56:18'or so that take place in Britain every year because of mining.
0:56:21 > 0:56:23'So, despite the alarm, from that perspective,
0:56:23 > 0:56:26'the seismic risks are small.'
0:56:48 > 0:56:52I set out to explore the American experience of fracking,
0:56:52 > 0:56:56and it seems to me that there's some real lessons to be learned.
0:56:56 > 0:57:00From a technical perspective, there's a consensus emerging
0:57:00 > 0:57:03that says that the risks of ground water contamination are fairly low
0:57:03 > 0:57:08as long as you can ensure the safe engineering of those gas wells.
0:57:08 > 0:57:12In the UK, a Royal Society report came to pretty much the same conclusion.
0:57:14 > 0:57:15You know, there's broader questions.
0:57:15 > 0:57:17I mean, should we do it?
0:57:17 > 0:57:21Do we want to do it? And what is the ultimate price we're going to pay?
0:57:21 > 0:57:25Answering those questions isn't just for scientists.
0:57:25 > 0:57:27It's for all of us.
0:57:52 > 0:57:55Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd