Fracking for oil and gas in the UK could make a huge contribution to treasury funds and to local communities whilst, at the same time, greatly reducing the amount of imported energy; an important factor given the instability in many of the oil-producing countries. If the pattern in the US is followed it will bring about a very appreciable reduction in energy prices.

These are factors which should not be instantly dismissed. However, correspondence carried in your columns over the last week or two have painted a picture little short of Apocalypse Now. Most of the evidence cited appears to come from US websites that publish horror stories, many out of context and some completely erroneous.

The US Federal Environment Protection Agency has recently published a detailed report on the dangers of fracking in relation to pollution of drinking water. It is available on its website (http://www2.epa.gov/hfstudy) and is an objective assessment. It is well worth reading. One finding is that the much publicised ability to set fire to your tap water resulted not from fracking, but from methane stored within the aquifers from which the drinking water was obtained.

It certainly confirms that there have been incidences of pollution, but these are few and down to poor construction and management. The number of such incidences needs to be placed firmly in context: there are over two million fracked wells in the USA, 25,000 to 30,000 more are being opened each year. If the issues discovered in the US were to be repeated here with our much smaller scale of fracking, they would be insignificant.

I do not wish to minimise any risk to human health and any fracking allowed in the UK must be supervised by government to ensure it avoids the sort of problem which has beset a small percentage of the US wells. This should be easier since each US State appears to have different standards and, by and large, companies are subjected to much less scrutiny.

In the last analysis it is the economy which is the key factor to our future well-being. Fracking offers huge benefits in this area. Whether fracked oil and gas can be delivered safely, without major damage to the environment, remains to be seen. We need reassurance from both local and national government that the lessons from the USA have been learned and will not be repeated here. Most certainly we should not allow ourselves to miss such a golden opportunity by listening only to the scaremongers.

TONY SEDGWICK Newman Road, Devizes