Photo: DrillOrDrop
In the past three days, there have been three formal calls to halt fracking, scheduled to start soon for the first time in the UK since 2011.
Cuadrilla has applied to the Government for final fracking consent for its shale gas site at Preston New Road in Lancashire. The company has said it expects to frack two horizontal wells at the site in the second half of 2018.
Local concerns about emergency planning
Jonathan Bartley with residents and campaigners outside Preston New Road. Photo: Green Party
Earlier this week, the Green Party co-leader, Jonathan Bartley, wrote to the Energy Secretary, Greg Clark, urging him to investigate concerns about emergency plans at the site, before granting consent.
DrillOrDrop reported last week on local calls for emergency plans to be published for Preston New Road. Residents, campaigners and a councillor said there should be an investigation into whether an evacuation plan was needed for homes surrounding the site and three nearby schools. Questions to Lancashire police and fire services have failed to establish what procedures would be used in an emergency, they said.
Mr Bartley, who met Cuadrilla last week, said:
“We’re calling on the Secretary of State not to make a decision over whether to grant a licence to frack until the matter has been investigated thoroughly and safety concerns are addressed. The fact that local residents don’t even know if there’s even a proper plan in place for emergencies – let alone evacuation – is deeply concerning.
“It would be completely unacceptable and be playing fast and loose with people’s safety to ignore these issues. The Secretary of State clearly shouldn’t make a decision on whether Cuadrilla should be allowed to frack until these serious questions are answered and the concerns of local people are addressed.”
Challenge over best practice
Yesterday, Mr Bartley’s fellow leader, Caroline Lucas, urged Mr Clark in a parliamentary question to also delay the decision.
She said he should wait until the conclusion of a legal challenge of the decision by the Environment Agency (EA) to grant a permit for fracking at Preston New Road.
Written question and answer, 20 June 2018. Source: TheyWorkForYou.com
DrillOrDrop reported last month that the EA had been accused of failing to take the best course of action to protect the environment from the risks of fracking.
Friends of the Earth, in its application for a judicial review, said the EA had a duty to ensure that best available techniques were used – but it had not carried out a best available technique assessment when considering Cuadrilla’s application.
In a reply to Ms Lucas, the Energy Minister, Claire Perry, said:
“There is no set timeframe for my rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State to take a decision on an application for Hydraulic Fracturing Consent. The Government has always been clear that shale gas development must be safe and environmentally sound. We are committed to ensuring a rigorous, evidence-based approach is taken to reviewing any applications for hydraulic fracturing.
“Hydraulic Fracturing Consent approval will not be issued unless the Secretary of State is satisfied that the legislative conditions in the Petroleum Act 1998 have been met and that he is otherwise satisfied that it is appropriate to issue consent.”
Fracking evidence review
This afternoon, the anti-fracking umbrella network, Frack Free United, called for an immediate moratorium on fracking in response to news reported by DrillOrDrop this morning that the Royal Society/Royal Academy of Engineering report was to updated.
This landmark review of fracking, issued in 2012, concluded that health, safety and environmental risks could be managed effectively in the UK as long as best practices were implemented and enforced. It has been quoted frequently by ministers in their support for shale gas development.
Frack Free United also called for a halt to government consultations on proposals to take many shale gas projects out of local authority control.
Last month, Written Ministerial Statements announced that fracking applications in England could be classed as Nationally-Significant Infrastructure Projects to be decided by a government-appointed inspector. Non-fracking shale gas proposals in England could become permitted development under the proposals, avoiding the need to go through the full planning system.
The Liberal Democrat spokesperson for energy and climate change, Baroness Lynne Featherstone said today:
“This is serious. The evidence that the Tory government currently relies on for justifying its pro-fracking viewpoint is being reviewed. This means the government could be relying on outdated science to prove that fracking is safe.
“It is not worth taking a chance on this. We no longer need fossil fuels to help us generate our energy. The government should halt its obsession with fracking and instead use the money to invest in more renewable projects instead.”
Categories: Opposition
DRILL OR DROP? 
This is all very positive
Happy Summer Solstice; the sun has given us energy today, transferred into food with the help of the plants and animals; into electricity thanks to those clever engineers 🙂
‘Every week seems to bring a new record-low price for clean energy: the most recent being a Nevada solar plant clocking in at 2.3 cents per kilowatt hour, even with Trump’s tariffs on Chinese panels’
‘And from Wall Street came welcome word that market perceptions haven’t really changed: even in the age of Trump, the fossil fuel industry has gone from the world’s surest bet to an increasingly challenged enterprise. ‘
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/21/climate-change-fossil-fuel-industry-never-been-weaker
“Formal”? Sounds very grand. Two insignificant MPs and a group of NIMBYs? Not feeling remotely concerned.
But Peeny – remember how well your Environmentalists For Don Diego farce went 🤗
Be worried
Ban it with a Moratorium 🙂
You mean have no b*lls
Moratorium – i.e. until all the latest findings are assessed. Simple. Then Ban.
Aren’t the people of UK, the tax payers of this country Nationally-Significant Infrastructure ?
Perhaps it is we who need and deserve to have “the best available techniques that can be used to protect us, and that they are carried out to the best available protection in emergency situations to be assessed when considering Cuadrilla’s application.”?
Not just considering Cuadrilla or the government, but us, we should have the best possible protection, we seem to lose sight of that fundamental requirement don’t we?
After all, without us, there is no finance for……anything?
Unless you are the SNP, PhilipP, then the two are inter changeable! Bit like control of the Scottish Fisheries-Brexit, Scotland has to control, Independence, help yourselves Brussels. Not so simple.
The last desperate shrieks from the antis. When the credibility has been completely eroded, find some straws to grasp.
Really brought out the heavy artillery this time? Hardly.
The £20 billion for the NHS has to be found from somewhere. I think that may trump (whoops) the pot friendly duo.
Oh, forgot the Baroness. Could someone gently advise her science is ALWAYS out of date.
wot, more than 6 years?
Hey Sher
You’ve not answered me again!
Please explain how you were running on 100% free renewable energy in that windless few weeks…
You could have added that to the report…
Almost as clueless as Baroness Lynne Featherstone saying we no longer need fossil fuels for our energy needs…
That wasn’t her opinion in 2008 when her GAS boiler broke and she rang 999 to report it… She should have just switched it off and maybe burnt paper in her stove???
Laughable…
You are a very angry person Kisheny; sadly there is no help for this, you must resolve your own issues in time.
As said many times before, it is impossible to answer your questions as no one can give you the answer you desire.
As you travel a lot I would suggest researching your own solutions to 100% renewable for your own environment, then you can happily join an ever increasing group of free humans.
Look forward to meeting you on the light side 🙂
Not angry Sher. You are the only poster I see swear at people on here…
Back to the point, if you post statements declaring you are running on free 100% renewable energy on windless days you will get asked to explain yourself
So explain yourself…
I really am interested, if you post back it up…
You are angry all the time Kish and that is quite evident from your posts, your lot always demand evidence but never provide anything other than repetitive prevarication, like shouting loudly in English in another country who don’t speak English, that seems to be the PR m.o., nothing but bluster anger and shouting down anyone who dares to disagree.
It really is unacceptable to attack people that way just because they dare to challenge the fracking gas litany.
Replying to Phil C & Sher
Never angry, clouds judgement…
If you want to see real anger just wait a few weeks…
When the mainstream media fill their front pages with the huge quantities of gas England are able to recover through shale for decades the anti brigade will turn even nastier than they are now
Sher still waiting for you to explain your statement on how you were enjoying free 100% renewable energy in windless weeks???
To be really honest I am laughing all day reading your comments from Fantasy Island…
Ha! Ha! That nitrous oxide is funny stuff isn’t it Kish?
Try more oxygen with it next time perhaps?
Look out kish! Those aliens are back again! And they have a U-Boat with them now! Woo woo woo!
You watch too much TV Kisheny… remember, even Fantasy Island [slightly misogynistic in nature] had a bias.
Ban and Moritorium are interchangeable Martin … even for the SNP. They’re synonymous. Look it up – or go back to school (it’s never too late). Your blood pressure might benefit from a bit more learning…. also check context to derive precise meaning. The old rules are the best.
No tutoring fee – you’re welcome.
Risk to life and limb from a huge explosion, and there is NO emergency evacuation in place, to the knowledge of the local community who would need to be evacuated from their homes rapidly. The corporate culture of oil and gas the world over is the same, trampling all over the human rights of local communities. Time for a ban.
I live a couple of miles from the Cuadrilla PNR site and am not worried in the slightest about their operation to extract Natural gas.
This area has real dangerous industry on its doorstep if you wanted to raise a safety concern.
BNFL Salwick which is ten miles from the PNR site. BNFL Salwick produces Uranium hexafluoride which is a compound used in the uranium enrichment process that produces fuel for nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. It is highly toxic, reacts with water and is corrosive to most metals…
Talking of nuclear reactors, Heysham nuclear power station is forty miles away by road, it has four nuclear reactors
There is gas production twenty five miles off the coast of Blackpool, these gas rigs are paying 62% and above tax to the treasury…
That’s the land and Sea around Blackpool, what about the air?
British Aerospace Warton which is nine miles from the PNR site. Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft can be regularly seen in the skies above this area. Twenty four of these aircraft being sold in a £5Billion deal to Qatar… Qatar does supply us with 90% of our LNG imports…
BAE Warton will also test Taranis an unmanned combat aircraft, unmanned combat aircraft being tested and developed above your head? Risk assessment Morning anyone?
To this day I have not had a leaflet posted through my letterbox explaining the nuclear hazards of producing Uranium products, nuclear reactor meltdown hazards and procedures or gas drilling 30 miles from my house back in the 1980’s or up to date information about proposed unmanned fighter aircraft flying at Mac 2 above my house
What I have received on a regular basis through my letterbox is the Lancashire first news from Cuadrilla Issue Q2 2018 received yesterday explaing what is happening at the site
I am sure Greg Clark will not shirk in his duties to ensure Cuadrilla have all safety issues completely covered to produce gas for Lancashire and the U.K…
What gas rate do you expect them to test if you think there is the risk of a huge explosion?
ian, we’ve drilled 10s of millions of wells around the world – both conventional and unconventional. Can you please find a single example where a home 500meters from a well would have been harmed in a “huge explosion” from one of these sites? Thank you.
Just a suggestion but perhaps the whole licensing and legal framework could also do with an overhaul, much is not fit for purpose ie for the unconventional gas industry. The Infrastructure Act is only part of the framework and is ripe of for challenge. If they don’t, my professional opinion is that the courts are going to be very busy. Things are legally messy and some of the fundamentals have not been tested in the courts. I doubt people are just going to accept fracking being rolled out they way the government believes.
Most certainly the residents of the Bowland Shale Zone are most definitely not accepting their countryside and seaside being turned into the largest Gasfield in Europe!
Although our land is faulted and soggy making it totally unsuitable for industrial scale unconventional hydraulic fracturing for fossil fuel, we actually love living here and so do our families!
Bullying and harassment by the police and government plus a totally useless MP and County Council mean we have to look out for ourselves which is what we are doing!
Tiresome. Clutching at straws. I’m neither Pro nor anti fracking. I am anti bulls**t though. I’ve worked for charities for best part of 20 years and what pains me most about this whole debate is how organisations can whip up fear by spreading lies about safety.
Fair doos to argue re climate change but they know they’ll lose the argument (on cost/speed of shift to renewables) so manipulating people through fear. Not appropriate.
So much time and energy wasted by who I’m sure are good people. Would be far better directed towards positively pushing for renewables and energy efficiency.
You missed the alarm that is to sounded at Barrow IF, Kisheny, if, and when the nuclear reactors on the new subs start to go haywire. That is to advise those house occupants next door to suck a sweety! (Usually relatives of those who are earning very high salaries within the site.)
It’s the same old argument trotted out again how only PNR has any hazards. Similar, for materials that may be on site-like diesel! Then we have the debate around more everyday substances that can be found in most households that the anti experts tell us are not toxic (like salt!) as we wander outside to deal with the slugs and/or dandelions, or to pay the tree surgeon for his work to clear the die back produced from salting the road during the Beast from the East-or, more likely the beasts Dad, as the damage this year will probably be dealt with next year. The view would change if a few bags were spotted at PNR in the winter!
For a group who, mainly, suggest/speculate/fabricate that there is no chance of commercial production of gas from fracking in UK, they seem to have a desperate desire to prevent that being demonstrated! Unaware as to how that looks to those who don’t share their viewpoint, the two thirds may give a clue that deliberate mixed messages are very easily spotted.
Perhaps PhilipP you should try your semantic nonsense out with the Judge who ruled on the Scottish case and the Scottish Government legal team. They seem to disagree with you.
If you do manage to convince them of your superior knowledge you will have just cost the tax payer £ millions in compensation payment, but not to worry, it’s only money and far more important things are so easily sacrificed on the climate change “alter”. Try asking Martin Tripp about that.
Nice try Martin. The judge threw out the case with INEOS trying to force its own reading of the word ‘ban’. And these wasteful explorations are already costing the tax payer millions – tax payers who pay their gas bills that is. Millions that get siphoned into the ‘profits’ of Cuadrilla.
Think you will find Philip the judge confirmed there was no ban in Scotland…
SNP basically lied to everyone then got caught out…
No ban in the sense INEOS thought there was. The moratorium is still an ‘effective ban’. Don’t know why we keep circling around this point. Willful ignorance on the part of some perhaps?
We will see in October, PhilipP!
You can always stop the attempts to slow exploration if you are that worried about tax payers millions. I’m sure Cuadrilla etc would only be too pleased to accelerate.
The comment from the SNP [Radio 4 question time] was they did not at the time have the legal stuff sorted to ban. Apparently this is now in place. Let’s see what happens eh?
It seems Westminster are stalling with England, otherwise Cuadrilla would be pumping up the volume and shaking the night [and day] away…
Sleep well everyone.