Opponents of Ineos shale drilling plans outside the Woodsetts public inquiry in Rotherham, 11 June 2019. Photo: DrillOrDrop
Opponents of drilling for shale gas from across England joined residents from the south Yorkshire village of Woodsetts outside a planning inquiry this morning.
The hearing, which opens at 10am, follows an appeal against refusal of planning permission by Rotherham Borough Council.
The inquiry, at Riverside House in Rotherham, is expected to last eight days.
The inspector, Katie Peerless, will hear evidence from Ineos, Rotherham council and Woodsetts Against Fracking.
DrillOrDrop will be reporting live news updates from the inquiry.
You can keep up-to-date with news headlines and links to reports from the hearing at DrillOrDrop’s Woodsetts inquiry page
Categories: Opposition
DRILL OR DROP? 
Nice plastic (made from oil) banners 😀
So what?
This should help share prices
‘The former chair of fracking company Cuadrilla has said that fracking has failed’
https://leftfootforward.org/2019/06/fracking-in-the-uk-doesnt-make-much-sense-says-former-fracking-company-boss/
Did you read the comments in your link John?
“Secondly, John Browne now works for a Russian gas company. He would like to sell us more Russian gas, so he would be keen to talk down any increase in the UK supply of natural gas.”
Not sure it is Russian (based in Luxemboug) but it does have Russian Gas, uses Russian money and has Russians on board:
“L1 Energy is an oil and gas investment company controlled by the Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman, through Alfa Group, and chaired by Lord Browne. On 2 March 2015, it was announced that Lord Browne was the Executive Chairman, and would be renouncing his other roles to build a major new oil and gas company from scratch.”
Interesting to see that they sold their UK North Sea fields to INEOS…….small world we live in.
“In October 2015 LetterOne sold its North Sea Oil fields to Ineos, the chemical company, for an undisclosed sum.”
An Awful Lot of People with Nothing Better to Do.
How do you know that they have nothing better to do?
Grumpy John today…
There is nothing better to do than fighting to save nature from those who only care about profit at any cost. Lack of respect for peaceful beings is a sure sign of sociopathy.
Couldn’t have got any more plastic in the pictures if they’d tried…
Banners, jackets, umbrellas, gazebos, phones etc etc…
Especially like the Land Rover umbrella, double whammy…
Then they’ll all drive home and put the kettle on…
So what?
we should not be promoting plastic, what is out there should be got rid of, and INEOS as one of the largest manufacturer of raw material pellets should not be involved, he should step away and take his money away with him before he gets sued for the world wide pollution he has been involved with. We do not need any new plastic let’s recycle what we have got
Yes, lets ship to Malaysia and dump / burn it? Out of sight out of mind. INEOS don’t dump it; we do. Lower demand, lower supply. Stop using it. Recycling seems to be a mythical process for most of the plastic.
Land Rover umbrella! Spot the product placement.
Beats crowd funding, I suppose.
(Or, maybe it is a competitor to Sir Jims new vehicle, showing their displeasure and concern.)
I find it quite amusing when the best criticism pro frackers can come up with is that we have plastic in our banners and we drive home and put the kettle on. Really, have you tried stand-up comedy?
You should try, as what you do is very good topic for comedy. Hypocrisy on highest level.
John you truly are hilarious!
Activist against something and clearly using the exact products they are protesting about! If you were vegan and wearing something you were clearly against, you clearly wouldn’t wear that, it sends the wrong message an lessens the impact and YOU loose credibility! Thats So What!!
Maybe you should attend a course on PR & Media Communications on: how not to do!!
Pro frackers with houses packed full of goods imported from China suggesting that we need onshore gas because they are unhappy with importing gas from Norway.
Not heard of any pro frackers complaining to the Government that we should stop exporting huge amounts of our home grown North sea gas.
Maybe attending a course on how the UK energy market works and the environmental and morale impacts of filling your house full of Chinese goods may help them understand things a little better.
In case you missed it,
https://leftfootforward.org/2019/06/fracking-in-the-uk-doesnt-make-much-sense-says-former-fracking-company-boss/
What is there to complain about John. The latest figures appear to be for Q4-2018;
UK imported 152,945 GWhrs gas
UK exported 9,603 GWhrs gas (6% of imports, a much smaller % of consumption)
Of the exports 1,957 GWhrs was to the Netherlands. These are direct exports from the Chiswick, Grove, Kew, Markham, Minke, Orca, Stamford, Windermere and Wingate offshore gas fields. These fields not appear to have pipelines to the UK. Would you like to shut them in to stop exports?
7,067 GWhrs went to Ireland as they don’t produce enough of their own gas and don’t have an LNG facility or pipeline to any other country. Would you like to cut Ireland off the gas grid?
371 GWhrs to Isle of Man – ditto above.
208 GWhrs to Belgium – insignificant and probably the contract end.
“Not heard of any pro frackers complaining to the Government that we should stop exporting huge amounts of our home grown North sea gas.”
Nothing to complain about John, happy to see us supplying Ireland and the Isle of Man with natural gas. And I don’t have a problem with the gas going to the Netherlands via Markham into the Den Helder gas terminal as that is the only pipeline route.
What have the antis got to complain about John? The export myth is exactly that?
‘What have the antis got to complain about John? The export myth is exactly that?’
Oh dear. In order to try and avoid the fact that over the last few years we have exported a similar amount of our home grown North sea gas as we have imported in LNG only one quarter of a year is offered to try and support their case. In response I would say look at Q3-2018 of the same report which clearly shows we exported more than we imported in LNG.
The reality if you look at P31 of the report is that it shows over the last few years that we exported a similar amount of North sea Gas as we imported in LNG.
What have the pro frackers got to complain about? If they have concerns over the importing of LNG then stop exporting similar amounts of home grown North sea gas.
Click to access Gas_March_2019.pdf
John, as you know the Belgium contract has ended and current gas exports are as per Q4 2018. Someone has clearly listened to you. No more gas exports – except those I noted above and I don’t believe even you would object to those?
We are discussing now, not the past are we not?
John P.
Thank you a have a business involved in environmental impacts in the oil and gas industry, most things today including Apple Iphones are assembled in China, we export API grade oil and gas to be used in different industries, car fuel, jet fuel, plastics, which includes pharmaceuticals, you know for that occasional paracetamol you take, from the household goods made globally! Norway?, we import when we have no need to?, do you buy imported to the uk, danish produce when you sit down to your “traditional” english breakfast?, if you do shame on you!!
Support British, Produce British,
Buy British
‘Support British, Produce British, Buy British’
China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) -> Kerogen -> AJ Lucas -> Cuadrilla
China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) -> Nexen -> Igas
If you support these companies…….
shame on you!!
Hmm. My house is not full of Chinese imports, John. Others may make different choices.
Now, I may buy Norwegian salmon, as I believe it to be better quality than Scottish and will accept the tax loss to the UK government, but I would prefer to balance that with on shore UK gas to replace some Norwegian and thus recover the tax loss. After all, much of the Scottish salmon industry is really Norwegian anyway, so seems pretty fair, especially whilst they sit on a $1 TRILLION PLUS Sovereign Wealth Fund generated from sales of their oil and gas.
Is that the same Lord Browne who sold Innovene to Sir Jim???
Tell you what, based upon that deal of the century, I just may come to the conclusion that INEOS can make sense out of business that Lord Browne can not!
Repeating the same old comments about people that oppose fracking using plastic goods, drive cars etc etc is a poor argument and boring. Better suited to the playground. There is a global movement to reduce plastic and fossil fuels because of the harm they cause. Is the entire world population hypocritical too? No, of course not. The fact is most people do the best they can in terms of reducing, recycling plastics, driving hybrid and electric cars where possible. Switching to greener energy sources where possible. Sadly we do not yet live in a world that is carbon zero with alternatives readily available. But that doesn’t mean they should be. And criticising those that are willing to actively fight fossil fuels, plastic pollution and climate change in this way is just petty. Thank goodness there are those willing to fight to improve the environment and focus on the issues that matter rather than those that istoop to making juvenile comments.
Clarification KatT – in the Guardian yesterday:
“There are only about 210,000 electric vehicles in the UK. About 1% of households use an all-electric car and about 2% hybrids, so tens of millions of cars will have to be replaced.” Most people very concerned……
KatT – this is the real world and associated problems:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jun/11/energy-industry-carbon-emissions-bp-report-fossil-fuels
https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/energy-economics/statistical-review-of-world-energy.html
“Primary energy consumption grew at a rate of 2.9% last year, almost double its 10-year average of 1.5% per year, and the fastest since 2010.
By fuel, energy consumption growth was driven by natural gas, which contributed more than 40% of the increase. All fuels grew faster than their 10-year averages, apart from renewables, although renewables still accounted for the second largest increment to energy growth.
China, the US and India together accounted for more than two thirds of the global increase in energy demand, with US consumption expanding at its fastest rate for 30 years.”
“The recorded temperature swings – days which are much hotter or colder than normal – helped drive the world’s biggest jump in gas consumption for more than 30 years.
They also resulted in a second consecutive annual increase for coal use, reversing three years of decline earlier this decade.”
“Carbon emissions climbed by 2% in 2018, faster than any year since 2011, because the demand for energy easily outstripped the rapid rollout of renewable energy.
That level of growth in emissions represents the carbon equivalent of driving an extra 400m combustion engine cars onto the world’s roads, said Spencer Dale, BP’s chief economist.”
An exploration well onshore UK with or without fracking makes no difference. The locals at Woodsetts are more worried about their house prices, views and traffic than climate change. The rent a crowd would be better off protesting in China, the US and India.
Regarding most people “do their bit” – not sure I agree but perhaps you are right about the recycling. Although it would appear our plastic ends up in dumps in Malaysia.
For EVs and hybrids 6% of new cars in UK were alternative fuels in 2018 so some are doing their bit…..6%?
https://www.statista.com/topics/2298/the-uk-electric-vehicle-industry/
KatT-what should be consigned to the playground is deliberately conflating usage and disposal.
Humans use a great deal of materials that after use require correct disposal. If you want electric cars, how about the discarded batteries? Nuclear energy to support intermittent renewables. How about disposal?
The human race sits on the toilet most days of the year. That is not an issue if disposal is managed correctly. Indeed, it is an industry in itself and employs a lot of people to do their jobs correctly (sorry, toilet humour unintentional), and we pay a lot of money for that to happen.
As long as recycling is conducted as it should be and is detailed within the Council commitments regarding what my taxes are taken for then I know any plastic I use is correctly disposed of, whether it be hard plastic or single use-I only have to put it in the right place. If it is not conducted as it should then someone needs to sacked for not doing their job that I pay my taxes to do exactly that. For activists to determine that it is impossible to get people to do their jobs correctly so decide their alternative is to ban things is really juvenile. Maybe they should get jobs where they can do the task they fear can’t be done?
The activity should be into making certain material disposal is effective. It really is not rocket science, it just takes a little effort rather than wasting time on virtue signalling. But, then we have weak decision makers who know that if one of the answers is incineration to produce electricity exactly the same Nimby crowd will be objecting to that, so they sit on their hands.
Yes, I do my bit. I was one of the 6% and I am no longer one of the 6%. Produce a product that people find works for them and the 6% may grow. Mr. Musk himself has stated a number of times that is an issue. Maybe unwise of him to be so open but it is currently the reality. So, Government will try and force the issue? Hmm, good luck with that-people still remember the push to diesel and how well that worked!
Now trains and buses really are low hanging fruit-unless you are Mr. Grayling.