Climate Thoughts with Brian

Secretary of State declines to call in Burniston fracking proposal

Proposals for fracking near Scarborough will now not be ‘called in’ by the Government and instead the decision will remain with North Yorkshire Council.

The Europa Oil & Gas proposal suggested using a “proppant squeeze” method to extract gas through a 38m drilling rig. However, after the application was postponed almost a month ago for the plans to be considered by the Housing Secretary, the recent news is being processed by local campaigners, who are fearful that the focus on the decision maker is the wrong call. John Atkinson, one of the leading campaigners of Frack Free Scarborough said,  ‘It doesn’t matter who makes the decision, fracking is so bad and so universally hated that if it’s ever passed, people will not stop fighting until it’s dead and buried.’

The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee said last week
“The secretary of state has carefully considered the policy on calling in planning applications, as set out in the Written Ministerial Statement dated 26 October 2012. The policy makes it clear that the power to call in a case will only be used very selectively.
“This policy also gives examples of the types of issues which may lead him to conclude, in his opinion, that the application should be called in. The secretary of state has decided not to call in this application.”

‘Patriotic duty’ to embrace fracking says Reform UK

The Deputy Leader of Reform UK, Richard Tice, told GB News last week that Britons have been “deeply misled over misinformation” about fracking. He claimed that shale gas would mean lower bills for consumers and agreed with Rees Mogg’s assertion that ‘Fracking is a perfectly safe process.’ He continued that it was our ‘patriotic duty’ to embrace fracking. “Let’s be patriotic and say, I want Lincolnshire gas for Lincolnshire jobs and Lincolnshire growth. I want Yorkshire gas, for Yorkshire jobs and Yorkshire growth. This is our patriotic duty to our children and our grandchildren.”

Reform’s Andrea Jenkyns has recently been courting American fossil fuel companies keen to bring fracking to Lincolnshire, which is bizarre considering the UK Government’s ban on fracking.

Tony Bosworth, climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth, disputed these claims from Richard Tice when he said: “The government still has a key role to play in the fate of this planning application. Labour has promised to ban fracking – and this highly controversial and deeply unpopular proposal involves a low-level form of fracking called proppant squeeze.

Ministers must ensure that proppant squeeze is included in its forthcoming ban, update national policy accordingly, and ensure communities like those in Burniston are not forced to accept damaging developments in their local area.

Fracking blights our countryside, won’t cut UK energy bills and is deeply unpopular with local communities. This application should be rejected.”

The irony is that on a regional level, Reform-led councils have indicated that they do not want fracking to return or begin. Only a few months ago, Lancashire County Council said that there were no plans for fracking to take place there. Perhaps national rhetoric from Reform UK would do well to listen to its own councils and regions.

Fracking won’t cut our bills say LSE

Reform’s claims on safety and lowering bills have also been called into question previously by the London School of Economics. Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science, said: “The decision to lift the moratorium on fracking does not seem to be based on the evidence presented in the report by the British Geological Survey. The moratorium was introduced in November 2019 after an assessment by the Oil and Gas Authority concluded that earthquakes of magnitude 3.5 or higher triggered by fracking could not be ruled out. Such events could potentially damage nearby buildings. The new report by the British Geological Survey presents no conclusive evidence that such events can now be ruled out.
“As long as the UK consumes natural gas there are good environmental and economic reasons to use domestic supplies of shale gas in preference to importing liquefied natural gas from other countries. However, this only makes sense if the shale gas can be extracted safely. Today’s decision appears to be based on the assumption that a higher level of risk to households is now acceptable.
“In any case, the decision to lift the moratorium on UK fracking will make no difference to the wholesale market price of natural gas and will not ease the cost of energy crisis.”

Farmland contamination

As well as Reform’s arguments not matching LSE analysis, land contamination of farmland through fracking remains a real concern. For a political organisation so supportive of British farmland- it seems once again at odds with their rhetoric when fracking contaminates the land.

Fracking operations in Lancashire at Preese Hall and Preston New Road  have raised serious concerns about radioactive waste, water contamination and seismic activity. There have been delays in returning former fracking sites to usable farmland, with the energy firm Cuadrilla asking for extensions, and in turn blaming the Environment Agency for the slow progress.

Reform- led councils don’t want fracking. Communities don’t want fracking. The UK Government doesn’t want fracking. Despite all this, leading Reform figures continue to create division over a topic which has already been settled.