A group of almost 50 scientists have called on the government to review the earthquake limit for fracking sites in order to allow the industry to grow in the UK. Currently any fracking must be put on hold if it produces earthquakes above the 0.5 magnitude limit, a provision that has repeatedly brought operations in Lancashire to a halt in recent months. The open letter to The Times has added support to the voices of fracking industry chiefs from Ineos and Cuadrilla who have called for looser earthquake restrictions. The 49 geoscientists, some of whom have been linked to the oil and gas industry, called the existing “traffic light” system “extremely conservative”.
Independent 9th Feb 2019 read more »
More than third of Europe’s gas came from Russia in 2017, according to analysts Wood Mackenzie, and although most of the UK’s comes by pipeline from Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium, it is impossible to establish the source of gas flows from continental Europe coming to the UK through pipelines, experts admit. Although the government is fond of saying that less than 1pc of the UK’s gas imports originate from Russia, Britain took delivery of a series of liquefied natural gas shipments from Siberia last winter. What a contrast with our transatlantic cousins. The fracking boom in America means that it is almost oil and gas self-sufficient and no longer dependent on the Middle East. Meanwhile, our own nascent industry may never get off the ground, leaving us increasingly dependent on a regime that has gone so rogue that it has taken to trying to assassinate UK citizens on home soil. Surely the spectre of the Kremlin’s influence over the UK’s energy security alone means the case for fracking is overwhelming? So which is it to be – the odd rattling teapot or the consumers of a western democracy left to the mercy of Putin’s police state? I know which I’d choose.
Telegraph 9th Feb 2019 read more »