With what seem to be the largest shale reserves in Europe – and maybe, who knows, in the world – we are a lucky people. Or so you might suppose. But that is to reckon without the two ugly sisters who are determined that Cinderella shall not go to the ball. The first is an influential quango, the Environment Agency, which is busy inventing one phoney reason after another why the extraction of shale gas should not be given planning permission. The second ugly sister is the Department of Energy and Climate Change, under its Liberal Democrat Secretary of State Ed Davey, and its Energy Bill now before Parliament. --Nigel Lawson, The Sun, 9 July 2013