The Prime Minister is wrong to raise people’s hopes that fracking could lead to cheaper energy bills, Jim Watson, professor of energy policy at Sussex University, said this week.

Professor Watson, who is also research director at the UK Energy Research Centre, told a public lecture on Wednesday (6/11/13), he was “tired of advocates saying it’s going to transform our economy tomorrow”.

The lecture, reported in the Daily Telegraph, also included criticism of the coalition government. Professor Watson said the coalition was confusing the public and investors by trying to run two energy policies at the same time, with different ideas about the role gas should play in the energy supply.

He said test drilling was needed so that extraction costs would be better estimated. But he said the level of public opposition to fracking was likely to make this difficult.