Poo to Fracking

Gas Extraction Licences (methane from coal) have now been granted for a vast swathe of Leicestershire, from Wymsewold (the whole village is included) to Melton Mowbray. Fracking  and Coal Gasification, despite their appalling environmental impact, are attracting huge sums of taxpayers money – yet an alternative source of clean renewable gas fails to grab the headlines. Some industry experts are claiming that 10% of the UK's gas requirements can now be met from poo, and like all new technologies it can only get better. Sewage, household, agricultural and industrial organic waste can all be processed by anaerobic digestion (AD) into methane; yet the majority of this valuable, and undoubtedly renewable resource, is processed by oxygenation, and eventually released into our rivers and seas. What a waste of waste! My congratulations to Prince Charles, who's AD plant at Poundbury is the largest in the UK. Unlike fracked gas, which once burnt will be gone forever, poo will be a continuous resource for centuries to come. Let us hope that our County and City Councils will stop fracking coming here, and instead join forces to develop a household waste and sewage processing centre that will truly keep the fires burning.