Lord Howell interview: 'The irony is that I go to the North East a lot' "The North East wasn't in my mind at all," says the chastened father-in-law of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, taking a break from packing for his summer holiday. Afterwards, I checked my words again, playing back the debate. It was a stupid error of mine to mention anywhere at all. The general story is right - that we want the derricks for fracking to be away from residences, in unloved places that are not environmentally sensitive. I don't want to see gas fracking subsidised like wind farms. A lot more care must be taken than has been the case with wind farms, which have caused desecration. It's odd that they've decided to do this exploring in sensitive places down in Sussex. Lord Howell, whose daughter Frances is the wife of George Osborne, is talking about exploratory drilling in the South Downs National Park, around undoubtedly beautiful, undesolate and, more importantly, Tory-voting places such as Balcombe and Fernhurst. Fracking - hydraulic fracturing of rock to release natural gas - is the new bogeyman of the environmental movement, an activity said to be responsible for serious pollution above ground and below, contaminating water tables used for human consumption. "The irony is that I go to the North East a lot," continues Lord Howell, who served as a junior minister in the Foreign Office until last year. I'm very pro the whole area, so it couldn't be more unfortunate that everyone is thinking that I hold opposite views to the ones I in fact hold. Back in the early 1960s, when Newcastle was really down after the collapse of shipbuilding, I went there for The Telegraph and wrote that it was going to be a vital place, a place of renaissance, a glittering city of Europe. Lord Howell has been portrayed as a champion of the fossil-fuel lobby but sees himself as an energy realist, searching for ways to keep the lights on while minimising damage to the environment. Fracking in Britain, he says, is likely to be economically viable only if the oil price remains high. "There is no doubt that policies here in Britain are adding to energy costs, including green taxes and subsidies to wind farms," he says. I'm as green as the next man but I fear the green lobby's politics are a disaster. They are undermining their own cause by trying to pile costs on to people who face rising bills. In a sting last year, Greenpeace secretly filmed Lord Howell and the Conservative MP Peter Lilley discussing ways in which the Tories could row back on their commitments to renewable energy and emissions. The peer described carbon targets as "absurd" and the PM as not understanding the issues at stake. "I am not happy about the trend of energy policy under this government," he says. In the near term we should concentrate on getting gas turbines built and getting away from coal burning. Energy is very long-term and things happening now come from decisions a decade ago. Much too much hope was put into the idea that renewables would solve our problems. Renewables have a place but it's a small and local place. We are an electric society, using vast amounts of electricity daily. Renewables are too intermittent and too costly. Lord Howell believes that greater use of natural gas and improved technology will do more to lower carbon emissions than wind, wave and solar power. "I'm not in a state of certainty that (global warming) is all man-made, or that it's not man-made at all - I'm in between," he says. I read this morning that volcanoes are producing more CO2 than anyone ever estimated. I note in America that, because they have moved from coal to gas, they are cutting their CO2 dramatically. The big emitters are China and America, and to some extent India and Russia. Our small percentage - and we are behaving very well - is not going to make a decisive difference. He denies using his familial link with the Chancellor to press the case against unrealistic carbon targets. That's all nonsense. The messages I have to give, I give through speeches and articles, not through family gossip. That's absurd. I talk to the Chancellor of the Exchequer about policy matters hardly at all. We're a family, we talk about family matters. He treats with resignation the storm he has aroused, accepting it as an example of the volatility that accompanies politics in the internet age. Twitter does allow instant opinions to be uttered, which is not necessarily good... Public opinion can swing around and people in government have to develop steadiness in the face of it. It's like sailing in a much more gusty, dangerous wind. And where is he off to on his holidays? France and Cornwall. South West rather than North East. Canny lad.