Fracking

Makes No Sense

The Conservative government’s decision to lift the ban on fracking makes no sense.

It will do nothing to help our bills or national debt since any gas produced in the UK is sold by companies on the international market. The UK is a tiny producer of gas, so even if we produced loads more gas via fracking (which would take years) it would make no difference.

It will make little difference to energy security – we already get most of our gas from the North Sea and have stopped using Russian gas. It’s unclear how much gas is available for fracking and even if this is significant it will take years to scale up enough to make much difference.

It does demonstrate the Consevative Government aren’t to be trusted – they made a manifesto commitment not to allow fracking unless it could be shown to be safe from causing earthquakes (it hasn’t). Their claim that it helps prices and/or energy security are clearly meaningless. The only benefit is enjoyed by the fracking companies.

Organisations like the IPCC are clear that if we are to meet climate change goals we need to stop developing new sources of oil and gas and focus on accelerating renewables.

Renewables are 9x cheaper than gas and are sold and generated locally. They would both help our energy costs and energy security.

Feels like double standards – the Conservative Government effectively blocked onshore wind by making even a single objection grounds to refuse planning permission. While on fracking they are going against their own manifesto commitment and seem to be heading towards forcing communities to accept fracking against their will.

They are even talking about making it harder to build solar farms in the middle of an energy crisis, where is the sense in that?