Labour would stop fracking
26th September 2016 | Commercial Energy
If it came to power, the Labour Party has said that it would ban the controversial technique for extracting shale gas. Shadow Energy and Climate Secretary, Barry Gardiner, announced at the Labour conference in Liverpool, that they would go further than the previously announced moratorium.
This means that the party is even more strongly opposed to fracking than the Scottish Government, which has a moratorium in place until hydraulic fracking impacts can be researched further. The Welsh Government opposes fracking and has instructed local authorities to turn down applications.
The Labour stance is that the policy to allow fracking would lock the UK into an energy infrastructure based on fossil fuels where the momentum is towards renewables. This stance is welcomed by the Liberal Democrats and the Greens.
The industry has confirmed that no shale gas wells will be drilled in Britain this year, awaiting a key fracking decision: Cuadrilla, which has two applications in Fylde, Lancashire, would not be able to start drilling until April 2017 at the earliest, even if they get the green light in the next fortnight.
Tony Bosworth, a campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: “Reality and rhetoric parted ways long ago on this because quite simply the government backed the wrong horse. Opinion polls repeatedly show that people in the UK strongly support renewables and oppose fracking.”
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