Yes, I'd agree with all that. They have a difficult circle to square, given that (as heleninwales notes) many of the shale gas deposits lie under Tory constituencies. I wondered after his first blunder whether he was flying a kite for his son-in-law, but his correction seems so inept that I'm more inclined to blame narrow-minded idiocy of the kind that only an education at our finest public schools and the House of Lords can provide. Nevertheless, the problem remains - at least, for those Tories committed both to making a quick buck from fracking and winning the next election.