'Lords of the Manor' to cash in on 'fracking'

[chris morton]

Hi Paul

Do we have an estimate of the ratio between energy in extraction to  
energy gained for this technology yet?

When it is being calculated it obviously must include not only the  
closely related costs of drilling etc and refining and distribution,  
but also the indirect costs such as restoring damaged land, social  
disruption and - it seems - the cost of all those expensive law firms  
with their over-heated offices and corporate bullshit.

For oil shales the bandied about ratio is 1 to 2 (compared to 1 to 100  
for a gulf oil well), but I am not sure whether that includes costs of  
repair to environment and social disruption.

All cost need to be in energy units, not dollars or some other  
artificially distorting medium

I need hardly say that every joule of prime oil energy that is not put  
into renewables is a joule permanently lost from a finite store - our  
REAL capital.

Chris