The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, told anti-fracking campaigners at a rally in Westminster that the Labour Party stood in solidarity with them. And he predicted opposition to fracking would be a key issue at the next election.
Government proposals to bypass local decision-making for shale gas developments are to be challenged on Wednesday (12 September 2018) with a women’s rally outside the House of Commons and a parliamentary debate.
A Conservative-led council which could see the first frack in North Yorkshire has overwhelming rejected government proposals to change planning policy for shale gas exploration.
Security guards tried to evict an anti-fracking camp near Cuadrilla’s Preston New Road shale gas in Lancashire this morning.
A second environmental group is taking legal action against the government over its new planning policy on fracking and onshore oil and gas.
September 2018 is expected to see the first UK high volume hydraulic fracturing for seven years when Cuadrilla fracks its first horizontal well in Lancashire. Also this month decisions are due on oil and shale gas sites and protest injunctions.
Data released today suggests that UK councils have invested more than £9 billion from staff pension funds in fracking companies, despite opposition to the process.
September 2018 could see the first hydraulic fracture in the UK since 2011. 17 events are already planned outside the Cuadrilla-operated site at Preston New Road near Blackpool, plus a women’s rally in Parliament Square.
Labour’s climate change spokesman, Barry Gardiner, today visited Cuadrilla’s Preston New Road shale gas site near Blackpool, where fracking is imminent. He also went to Altcar Moss, a site near Formby earmarked for fracking by Aurora Resources.
A Ryedale grandmother, who chained herself to the entrance of Third Energy’s fracking site with a Reclaim Democracy banner, said she did it to “prevent serious harm”.
DRILL OR DROP? 