Fracking

We campaigned to stop the government fast-tracking fracking – and we won!

Locally, and nationally, we ran a hard-hitting campaign opposing the government’s plans to fast-track fracking through the planning system, over the heads of local people. We argued that fracking was bad for the countryside, local communities and the environment – and in the end, common sense prevailed! The government has now dropped its proposals and halted fracking altogether: great news for communities and the countryside.

At a time when we need to cut down carbon emissions and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, we must remain vigilant to ensure and together with local people, we will keep fighting against this unnecessary industrialisation of our countryside.

The Conservative Environment Network (CEN) manifesto must govern the UK’s policies to prevent climate catastrophe. The manifesto states…

A ban on fracking is overwhelmingly sensible for four main reasons:

1. One, gas from fracking offers little in the way of economic opportunity, and much more in the way of stranded assets. For a host of reasons including population densities, political dynamics and water distributions, it is extremely unlikely that the UK will be able to exploit our shale reserves in the way the US has.
2. Two, even if UK shale gas resources could be exploited at scale successfully we would not benefit from the significantly lower gas prices. The amount we pay for gas is largely determined by two things: the international liquefied natural gas spot market price and the European gas price. Consuming UK gas at the cost of production would require significant subsidies.
3. Three, fracked gas would only help to reduce our emissions if it replaced coal, which has already been almost entirely removed from the national grid. And, in addition, it could lead to unpredictable, ‘fugitive emissions’ that leak out of pressurised equipment.
4. Four, we know that security for the energy transition can be found elsewhere from cheap renewables, hydrogen, and nuclear, for example. In short, we know that in roughly ten years’ time we should be turning away from gas. Finally, as a cherry on top, fracking is woefully unpopular. Over twice as many Conservative voters believe that we should generate power from onshore wind than from fracked gas.

If we are serious about our transition to a more secure world we now need to step away from the oil and gas economy on which we have relied on in the past.

Read the Guardian article here: www.theguardian.com

Read the CEN manifesto here: www.cen.uk.com/manifesto

You can read our policy on fracking here