The minister spearheading the UK’s renewed push for fracking has admitted she has never been to a shale gas well. In the week that fracking restarted in the UK for the first time in seven years, the energy minister, Claire Perry, revealed to a fellow Conservative MP that she had not yet had the chance to visit a shale site. Perry has spent the past few days calling on the public to “trust the science of shale gas extraction” and insisted that fracking is compatible with tackling climate change. But asked how many times she had visited a shale exploration site, she said: “I have had a number of meetings with stakehold ers interested in shale gas exploration, but have not yet had an opportunity to visit a site.” The written parliamentary answer came in response to a question by the Tory MP Lee Rowley, who has prospective shale sites in his constituency. Rose Dickinson, Friends of the Earth campaigner, said: “Unlike the local community who protest outside the Preston New Road site in Lancashire every single day, it is surprising that the minister has never even been curious enough to visit.
Guardian 18th Oct 2018 read more »
Energy minister Claire Perry has been accused of making a “muddled” case for fracking in the UK. Ms Perry spoke out in support of the controversial fossil fuel technology, claiming shale gas extraction was needed to ensure the country is not dependent on gas from Russia. However, this appears to contradict previous statements she made, which saw her claim that Britain was “in no way reliant” on Russian gas. Official figures from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) show that less than 1 per cent of the UK’s gas supply comes from Russia. But in an interview with The Times over the weekend, Ms Perry said environmentalists who want to block fracking are unrealistic in their ambition to switch to 100 per cent renewables now. “What are they going to cook their kids’ tea on? It’s likely to be gas and do we actually want to be reliant on Mr Putin for our gas supply?” she said.
Independent 18th Oct 2018 read more »