Shale Gas Good for UK?

Listened to an interesting argument the other day - all suggesting that in the medium term US shale gas is good for the UK.

The argument went something like this:

North Sea gas is dwindling.
So the UK is becoming more dependent upon imports.
Renewables are not coming on-stream fast enough.
So UK will remain dependent upon imports for the medium term - especially for electricity generation.
With economic shale gas discoveries US gas reserves have risen from 800 Tcf to 2800 Tcf.
So US has over 200 years of gas resources at its disposal.
So it may well flood the market in the next 5 years or so.
So prices will fall.
And the UK is best positioned to receive US exports.

Simples!

Do you believe that? And what about the enviromental cost?