KEITH ROSS clearly hasn’t read my points on fracking carefully or accurately (Letters, July 19).

He states I want to “add more fuel to the fire”. Wrong, the point I clearly made is you switch which fuel you burn. Choosing imported oil and gas over locally sourced fuel makes little difference except to the economy.

Declaring we simply convert everything to renewable immediately because a technical solution exists misses the point of what is practical.

This would mean converting every single car, gas cooker, and power station tomorrow. And how you power a commercial airliner without hydrocarbon fuel escapes me.

Stating that wind can, on certain days, provide more electricity than coal is a red herring.

The key fact is renewable energy generation today sits around the 20 per cent mark.

I’d like to see that figure rise too which he mentions is already happening but it takes decades to fully restructure an entire industry so what does he propose we do in the meantime, close all gas fired power stations and leave half the country without power?

Renewable sources also cannot be depended on to provide the national grids baseload level in all weathers, for that we will need thorium-based nuclear reactors in my view.

Fracking can be set up quickly to provide the short term energy needs while helping to accelerate investment in the long term solutions through a boosted economy.

Dr Scott Marmion, Woodthorpe, York