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Our Mission

Mission Statement 

The Task Force on Shale Gas was established in September 2014. The Task Force on Shale Gas aims to provide a transparent, trusted, independent and impartial platform for public scrutiny, discussion and information about shale gas exploration and production in the UK. The Task Force acts with total impartiality and independence from its funders, and from stakeholders with firmly supportive or firmly opposed views on issues. Fully respectful of the legislative, regulatory and planning decisions already in progress within the UK government, the Task Force seeks to augment both the public’s and policymakers’ access to full and fair information, enabling well informed decisions on the future of shale gas in the UK. 

Task Force Goals 

The Task Force has the following primary goals:

  • Independent scrutiny: Gather and scrutinise comprehensive information about both the potential benefits and the legitimate concerns associated with shale gas exploration and production. Identify the unanswered crucial questions surrounding the future of shale and its extractive technologies in the future UK energy mix.
  • Public information: Provide a trusted and transparent ‘go-to’ source of online information, for the public and policymakers, that accurately presents fullyinformed and fact-checked representations of all those with a perspective on the major unanswered questions about this energy source.
  • Discussion and debate: Host discussions and meetings on issues and research into shale gas exploration and production, to be platforms for robust and well informed debate, where the views of all sides can be fairly represented.
  • Research: Commission and peer review research into the questions related to shale gas exploration and production.
  • Communication: Communicate to interested stakeholder groups and the UK public at regional and local levels.
  • Final report: Publish a comprehensive report of research and findings.