England - Fracking ban is reinstated by Rishi Sunak

At his first Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Mr Sunak suggested he would reverse the green light given by his predecessor as he claimed he “stands by the manifesto on that”.

The Prime Minister’s comments came after Green Party MP Caroline Lucas asked him in the Commons: “The Prime Minister’s reckless predecessor took a wrecking ball to nature, prompting millions of members of the RSPB, the National Trust and the Wildlife Trust to rise up in opposition. Yesterday, he promised to fix her mistakes as well as to uphold the party’s 2019 manifesto.

“So, if he is a man of his word, will he start by reversing the green light she gave to fracking since it’s categorically not been shown to be safe, and instead maintain the moratorium that was pledged in that very manifesto that he promised to uphold?”

Mr Sunak replied: “I have already said I stand by the manifesto on that. But what I would say is that I’m proud that this Government has passed the landmark Environment Act.”

Good for Rishi … :+1:

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clever man always thought so - he can read the mood of the country

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Good! Who wants induced earthquakes?

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Yep, Rishi is out to establish stability. :grinning: :boxing_glove:

Shake, quoth the dovehouse! 'Twas no need, I trow, To bid me trudge

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Shake rattle and Roll.

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hang on there is nothing wrong with frackin and with winter coming on and bills skyrocketing you better get on with a bit of frackin - do they frack in \india No well there ya go - he’s indian ain’t he then what does he know about frackin for frack sake?

Actually, there is:

Fracking failed in Lancashire then, and it will fail again. One thing that Truss has clearly failed to understand is at least seven fundamental problems with fracking.

Firstly, the climate science tells us that to have any chance of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees, we must stop drilling for new oil and gas. The Climate Change Committee has said fracking for shale gas on a significant scale is not compatible with the UK’s climate targets.

Secondly, beyond the climate issues, fracking comes with major health and ecological risks.

Thirdly, the UK has a population density of 640 people per square mile, compared to the US which has a population density of 80 people per square mile.

Fourthly, the UK has far more complicated geology than the vast frack fields in the US and that’s why companies which tried to frack before, like Cuadrilla, kept getting complications with earthquakes. Add complicated geology to the high density factor and that means fracking will happen close to people’s homes and it’s a recipe for disaster.

Fifthly, fracking remains unpopular: An article in the Financial Times earlier today noted that “The reality is that the public attitude to fracking is so dire.” A recent poll found that only a third of people supported fracking compared with 74 to 81 percent for wind and solar.

Sixthly, something that is often overlooked is fracking is not like conventional drilling. So to keep production high, more and more wells need to be drilled. For example, one analysis in the US found that the vast Bakken fracking field needed 1,400 new wells a year just to keep production stable. The higher production rose, the more new wells that were needed to maintain it.

Lastly, even if you could frack safely in the UK, Dr. Stuart Gilfillan, one expert at the University of Edinburgh, recently said, “the lack of facilities to safely treat waste fluids produced by the fracking process remains a key showstopper to UK shale gas plans.” Like nuclear, we have no where to treat the waste.