Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, outside Cuadrilla’s shale gas site at Preston New Road, 15 September 2017. Photo: Roseacre Awareness Group
The Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, promised Labour’s support to protesters outside Cuadrilla’s fracking site near Blackpool during a visit this afternoon.
Speaking opposite the site at Preston New Road, Mr McDonnell said:
“The purpose of today’s visit was to first of all come along and listen to hear about the operation itself and the implications of it and also the operation with regard to the policing.
“But also it was to take back a message to parliament and my colleagues there that we need to give you all the support we possibly can.”
Asked why he had visited, he said:
“Over a number of months people have been contacting me about the problems here, both in terms of the fracking that is being developed and also about the policing operation, so I thought I should come and see for myself.”
Mr McDonnell is the highest profile Labour politician to visit the Preston New Road protests. He spent more than two hours with campaign groups outside the site and at their nearby community hub at Maple Farm.
He said:
“It’s been an extraordinary benefit just to get the briefing about what’s happening here in terms of the operation of the site itself, the development and the implications for the local community and also the briefing with the regards to the nature of the policing that’s gone on.”
Campaigners have protested outside the site since Cuadrilla began work in early January. There has been increasing criticism of what campaigners described as aggressive policing at the protests. Up to the end of July, there have been 279 arrests.
The 2017 Labour Party manifesto opposed fracking, although some MPs and unions support the technique. Mr McDonnell said:
“The Labour Party, in its manifesto, said we’re opposed to fracking, once we get into government we will ban it and the reason we want to ban it is because we are convinced about the implications of climate change.
“To stand any chance of protecting the globe against climate change countries like ours have got to decarbonise our economy. And we can’t allow fracking to bring a new generation of carbon into our atmosphere again.”
On the support of the GMB union for fracking, he said:
“We are a democratic party and people are able to express their views and that’s what the GMB have done.
“But if you look at the main thrust of our policy now, it is to try and say to people we’ve got to recognise the threat of climate change. That means we’ve got to do everything we possibly can to avoid the threat to our planet.
“One of the issues for us, as a developed country in particular, is to ensure that we decarbonise. We can’t allow fracking then to basically place carbon back on the agenda for future generations.”
Roseacre Awareness Group said of Mr McDonnell:
“A nice man who listened to all we had to say and was struck by our community spirit and determination to fight this industry. He reaffirmed Labour’s commitment to oppose fracking and he will be reporting back to Parliament.”
Categories: Politics
DRILL OR DROP? 
So this McDonnell character believes that fracking should be opposed because of climate change implications. Who is going to tell him that the single biggest driver right now to reduce CO2 emissions comes from the use of fracked gas to replace coal generation? Does he aim to stop that progress? Or is he merely saying “let’s use someone else’s fracked gas so that we leave a higher carbon footprint and ship our jobs and profits overseas”?
Meanwhile, Labour is all about supporting “Green” energy sources such as wood pellets, which are worse than coal in the near term as far as emissions. And, of course, they love the ever-dependable wind and solar options. Well, they love them until they figure out that they destabilize the grid, cause power outages, lead to higher mortality rates, and much higher energy prices, whenever they achieve large penetration rates. This is not to mention the environmental destruction from mining the ever-scarcer minerals needed to build these devices.
Labour is ever so practical!
Shale gas worse than coal. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13053040
Invalid, clinch. Look at the date on your publication. Methane leakage rates have not been anywhere near the hyped levels hypothesized about in the article you cite.
Ex – Mobil Oil, Vice President.
Question and answers on the dangers of Fracking .
https://www.rt.com/shows/sophieco/223239-us-fracking-industry-pollution/
Your argument is invalid for the UK Refricktion. See my response further down this thread.
Even the Intergovernmental panel on climate change thinks that methane leakage rates are very low. Your facts are all wrong, clinch.
Clinch
Says Howard’s in the 2011 BBC snippet, but lots of discussion and debate about that since ad infinitude on these pages. Ingraffea and Howard on one side, Energy in Depth et al on the other.
McDonnells plan was to use tax payers money to gamble with by buying bonds in FTSE100 companies and then utilising the ‘profit’ to pay off the debt!
Sadly there will be many people on this website that don’t see the major problems with that plan. If I need to explain it to you then please do me a favor and get back to your soap on the ‘telly’ and give up whatever fight you think you’re putting up.
Did anyone mention that LABOUR issued first PEDL Licences for FRACKING in 2008 ??? Thought not!
A lot has been learned about the problems of Fracking since then Malcolm.
…and the Paris Climate Change Agreement…and clean technology has come on in leaps and bounds; all in all a good call.
Pretty good balanced examination of the issues-did he have any discussions with Cuadrilla? So, he starts with his first sentence quoted here as a load of tosh. Par for the course.
Perfect own goal. Marxist McDonnell has finally put his face on the front of the anti campaign.
Just shows that he understands the issues GBH. As you appear not to.
Judging by the comments I think this has touched a nerve i.e the reality that the only political support in Westminster for fracking is the minority Conservative government, propped up by the bought UDP. The Yougov poll today showed that if there was an election now Labour would win and given all the other parties oppose fracking, that would be the end of fracking. All the other parties are right to want to put an end to fracking we need to concentrate all our efforts and attract investment for a carbon zero future. And in terms of climate change, saying shale gas is the biggest reduction of CO2 is a massive over simplification. The issue is global. So if the US extracts more gas more gas globally is being burned, both domestically and through export. Plus the US is still mining coal and now exporting more coal because so now more coal is still being burned as well as gas. Methane is also an issue. Those gas/oil nations producing conventional reserves are still producing, so ultimately the extraction of new reserves just means more fossil fuels are being burned. If we are to avoid catastrophic climate change we have to change, not carry on regardless. Extracting more hydrocarbons is not the answer. It is absolutely right to decarbonise the UK as soon as possible.
KatT
American coal mining.
Coal,production in the US has reduced from 1,162,700 to 728.2 Tonnes over the last 10 years. Employment in that industry is down by 66,000 from 2011 to around 50,000.
In 2005 50% of electricity was coal powered, now down to 30%. Renewables is now 15%
Coal production is expected to decline, as gas takes a larger share of power generation.
Exports are up, and will exceed 26 million tonnes in 2017. Of this 11 million tonnes has been exported to Europe. The Netherlands has had 3 million tonnes, Germany 1.2 and U.K. 1.1 million tonnes.
But production is in decline.
However …..
China produces 3,411 million tonnes, India slightly more than the USA. Everyone else less.
The European Union produces, and consumes 493 million tonnes. The largest producer is Germany, who also import US coal. Germany produces 176 million Tonnes of coal a year. Even Greece produces 33 million Tonnes, while the UK produced 4 million Tonnes.
The last time coal production in the U.K. equalled the present day German production, was 1965.
Hence, while US coal issues are of concern in terms of coal use, greater issues press in terms of China and India, and more locally for Germany, who find themselves in a slight pickle.
Decarbonising the UK will no doubt happen one day, but a grasp of global coal production gives an inkling of the task ahead globally. Even more so if industry is brought back to the UK.
hear, hear KatT
Did he talk with the Police to get their opinion too?
No?
Thought not.
Malcolm Thomason – I am not sure what point you are trying to make. That was a very different Labour Party as you well know – A party accurately described as a new party torn away from it’s democratic and socialist roots – Tory Lite. This Labour Party, a party powered by democracy of membership has a superb manifesto that includes the banning of this toxic pursuit of profit.
Refriction – You are just approaching this from a fear paradigm informed by the fossil fuel industry via their lobbies and disinformation through the right wing media. Interestingly and somewhat counter to my point, here is a quote from one of your probable favourite publications, The Telegraph:
“The economic argument over wind power has been settled. Britain’s national gamble on offshore wind arrays in the North Sea and the Irish Sea has been vindicated in spectacular style. This should be proclaimed, assiduously nurtured, and expanded where compatible with marine ecosystems. If you are looking for a turbo-charged venture to lift British fortunes after Brexit, offshore wind is as good as it gets.”
…and that is just wind. Solar is hugely efficient and cheaper than it has ever been. Please be forward thinking. This transition nonsense is like saying that we should slowly downscale from murder by allowing a few. Renewable energy uptake and workability is just a question of investment and implementation. Labour have this all in their manifesto.
Ralph 9660 & Refriction – These are moot points. Even if there are zero Methane leakages then Fracking is proven beyond doubt to destroy communities, poison water tables and cause earthquakes – all this aside from it is a hydrocarbon. Solar and wind have recently overtaken fossil fuels with their lower costs efficiencies and ease of implementation. There is no excuse. Not to mention filling the coffers of Oil companies and their shareholders. This is insanity and it will be stopped.
Kat T – Fully agreed.
When you have done as much research as I have and met so many adversely effected by it you come to some truths. FRACKING is just SO SO SO wrong on SO SO SO many levels I cannot believe it is even a point to be debated.
“Support” like removing student’s debt. Ahh-it will cost a lot of money-let’s forget it. Thanks for the votes and support, but tough luck.
I see the fracking dreamers and fossil fuel die-hards peddling the same old delusions. Let it go. Shale gas will not reduce emissions for the UK period. That argument has only has been found valid for regions that are heavily dependent on coal power using large old style stations. UK’s coal/ energy ratio is down to 20% and now they’re talking even about the mighty Drax plant going coal free by 2020.
Costs, environmental degradation and carbon emissions make this intrusive, risky, polluting industry a non starter here.
… check out JacktheLads’ link above. The ex-Mobil VP sums up the issues succinctly.
KatT-apart from there will not be an election today or tomorrow, and certainly not until after Brexit, (after which, many Remoaners will move their votes back to where they came from) when did the Polls actually get anything right in the last five years? You do seem to gather a great deal of fake information and make out it means something. Grasping at straws would be a less charitable way of putting it. You do realise that for Labour to have managed to produce anything like a coalition it would have had to do a deal with the DUP, every other group, individual and tea lady in Westminster?! And the DUP will NEVER do a deal with Corbyn.
The only meaning to JM visiting PNR is that the guy is looking for any situation he can blow up into conflict. If it isn’t PNR, it is McDonalds, if it isn’t them it is waste collection in the Midlands etc. etc. If you welcome his support, good luck. You have moved a long way from locals being concerned with their local environment, and it will not be a benefit.
PhilipP-stop arguing with yourself. No-one is seriously looking for gas from fracking to replace coal in the UK. Coal has already largely been replaced by gas, and probably fully by the time any UK fracked gas was available. The possibility is to replace imported gas with home produced gas. I know why you want to avoid that argument because most will remember when oil was discovered in the N.Sea and what the reaction was to that by the UK populace. (They rightly thought it would protect against OPEC hiking prices by 400%, again!)
However, much like KatT, you will find fake arguments will be trumped (I know how you like a good US reference) by reality.
Keep up Martin .. I was merely defeating Refricktion’s point. You guys just keep recycling the same tired old arguments. Probably a memory loss thing . And while loosing the battle it must just be emotional attachment that keeps the whole fracking dream alive.
‘The possibility is to replace imported gas with home produced gas’ – probably an impossibility due to price, tie ins to trade and arms deals and the rapid escalation of clean energy technology (the tortoise has caught up with the hare; wont be long now…)