Shale Gas 2012

FT on the Golden Age of Gas

In the better late than never category, one of the big guns of conventional economic wisdom, the FT's Martin Wolf discovers the Golden Age of Gas that the IEA published last June:

The world is in the midst of a natural gas revolution. Even the sober International Energy Agency refers to a scenario it calls a “golden age of gas”. If such optimism proves right, the implications would not only be far greater than those of the eurozone’s painful dissolution, but would also be economically positive. Never forget that ours is a civilisation built on cheap supplies of commercial energy. The economic rise of emerging countries is bound to make the demand for commercial energy increase dramatically in the decades ahead. Gas matters.

None FT subscribers can find it in the clear via the Irish Times.

The is pretty old hat to readers here, but it is easy to forget that 90% of people have never even heard of shale in Europe, and 9% have heard the wrong thing. But having people like Martin Wolf on side can be much more valuable than the average energy expert:

Martin Wolf is chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, London. He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 2000 “for services to financial journalism”. Mr Wolf is an associate member of the governing body of Nuffield College, Oxford, honorary fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford University, an honorary fellow of the Oxford Institute for Economic Policy (Oxonia) and a special professor at the University of Nottingham. 

He has been a forum fellow at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos since 1999 and a member of its International Media Council since 2006. He was made a Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, by Nottingham University in July 2006. He was made a Doctor of Science (Economics) of London University, honoris causa, by the London School of Economics in December 2006. Martin's most recent publications are Why Globalization Works and Fixing Global Finance.