Carbon in fossil fuel is essential for a moderately high living standard for ever. Carbon in fossil fuel is the only available inexpensive reducing agent.

Mrs Bishop is gleeful that there is sufficient shale gas for 100 years. What fraction is that of the possible future survival period of sapient beings?

Sufficient Thorium is available for at least 50,000 years of power demand or 500 times the period claimed by the author for what she is promoting.

And regard/respect for the environment?
Surely it deserves a few more words. I suspect that the author is not too concerned.

Rhian, don't usually engage in written repartee, however, I will make an exception.
Shale oil/gas is said to be available in the Perth, Carnarvon and Canning Basins of Western Australia at depths at or greater than 2000 meters.
In all three basins shallow ground water and deep aquafir water is found. The Canning Basin has not been geologically explored to the same extent as the other two basins so knowledge of shale oil/gas structure is limited in this particular basin.
It is not the horizontal drilling that causes environmental worry but the injected noxious chemical proppents that may affect the quality of the aquafir water.
At time of writing there are no commercial producing shale oil/gas bores operating so all/any conjecture on whether the industry is or is not, or will or will not, adversely affect the environment is purely that: conjecture.

The “Sustainable Development” movement has and continues to shoot itself in the foot. It’s otherwise known as the “what it is we seek to avoid, we create” syndrome.

Cheryl has nicely articulated the problem, they hate humans and any form of human development and object to everything.

The energy prohibition imposed politically by the Greens has backfired spectacularly. Alternative energy sources have indeed been found; sadly for them these are mostly carbon based as the world realizes that renewables flat line at about 6%.

Germany announced last month, the building of 23 new coal fired power stations, their number one source of fuel is now lignite at 30% and growing at 3.1% p.a.

Well done the Greens. All we need now as evidence of the new growing status of carbon based fuels is the Russian state owned gas supplier slashing their prices to Europe.

Sometimes the eco-zealots only seem to confirm that they don’t even know what it is they don’t know. Anyway, please keep up the great work in dismantling your scam for the rest of us; please close the door on the way out.

Jack From Bicton

Fraccing has been used in WA for decades, with no adverse effects on water resources I'm aware of. The wide separation of gas and water in our shale reserves suggests there is little threat to water quality if our shale oil is commercial to develop. And the water that might in theory be affected is not water currently used by people or flora and fauna.

The probability of "complete destruction of potable underground water", which your post alleges, is zero.

Spindkok,

"Cheryl has nicely articulated the problem, they hate humans and any form of human development and object to everything. "

Sustainability visionaries only hate Women who have more then one child.

That is NOT the whole human race.

It is just a selfish subclass who know their extra progeny will kill ecosystems, endangered species and other human cultures but do it anyway because of selfishness and greed. Hell they can always blame men and there are plenty of sexually frustrated men & politicians who will support them & do and cop anything to get SEX. Since women only put out Deceptions and never the real thing unless there is a big house and car attached to it, these men are mostlay dumb suckers and never LEARN till the cops or the lawyers get involved.

That Tony Abbott has to crawl to such women to get to be PM is the last nail in his coffin. He has just been politically screwed and there won't be the pleasure!

Look, the only reason we are all fretting over a thermodynamic absurdity like Frackass is because inhumane women are having too many children. Remove the vote from women who have more than one child per lifetime and the need for Frackass goes away along with a myriad of social & environmental injustices and inhumanities.

And don't forget women who have the intellect and compassion to only have one or no children. They should be rewarded with grants, bonuses, the VOTE and equal power opportunities in business and in government. For they are the true EQUALS of men when it comes to actually BUILDING a nation and not Breeding that nation into a trash heap like a Campbelltown/Raby rental.

Or Else we make Cheryl PM, give $100k bonuses for the 8th child, permanent paid parental leave, immigrate the whole of indonesia, PARTY for 6 years an when it gets too HOT we can invade New Zealand and do the same thing there!