A Cuadrilla is the matador’s supporting cast. Before the bullfighter takes on his next victim, the bull is tormented and weakened by a gang (a “Cuadrilla”) of toreadors and picadors. Of course, the bull always loses, because it’s a spectacle not a sport. Cuadrilla is therefore an oddly antagonistic name for a UK company using horizontal fracturing (“fracking”) to extract natural gas from beneath communities in Lancashire, northwest England. Its opponents, who seem to include a sizable portion of the local population, are determined to fare better than the bull against their adversary. Cuadrilla has just begun fracking tests. The company was founded in 2007 and has been trying to get started ever since. In 2011 the government halted work because it was linked to local earth tremors.
Based on news reports and op-ed columns, it’s Cuadrilla supported by the UK government and Matt Ridley (a well-known British writer and peer) against pretty much everyone else. Britain’s energy increasingly relies on natural gas from Norway and electricity from France. Supplies of North Sea oil peaked long ago, and the domestic coal industry has mined what’s commercially accessible. Last winter, Britain had to import liquefied natural gas from Russia – possibly the least attractive energy supplier on the planet. Among the many possible consequences of a “hard” Brexit (i.e. one that happens without a successful negotiation by March 29), is that Northern Ireland (part of the UK) will suffer widespread electricity outages. This is because its power comes from the Republic of Ireland (not part of Brexit) to its south, and a breakdown between the EU and UK would disrupt the grid.
By contrast with the U.S., Britain is increasingly energy dependent. The porous shale rock holding oil and gas that America is efficiently exploiting is found in many other parts of the world. A substantial resource is thought to be beneath the towns and farms of Lancashire and Yorkshire across northern England. The British Geological Survey estimates this Browland Shale region contains over 1,329 Trillion Cubic Feet of natural gas, more than 920 years of consumption at current levels. Such estimates of what’s recoverable are usually multiples of what actually comes out of the ground, but even with a 90% haircut, it’s a substantial amount.
