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RC: "Corbyn is right to condemn Boris’s cynical fracking u-turn" (UK)

#1
C C Offline
https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/11/co...ng-u-turn/

EXCERPT (Ross Clark): For once, Jeremy Corbyn is right. The government’s announcement of a moratorium in fracking is an election stunt – and attempt to snatch a few leave-voting seats in the North at the expense of damaging Britain’s energy policy for the next couple of decades, as well as causing higher carbon emissions.

Announcing the block on fracking on Radio Four on Saturday morning, business secretary Andrea Leadsom said the government had reached its decision because the Oil and Gas Authority had concluded that it was impossible to predict when ‘earthquakes’ might be caused and what magnitude they might be. This followed a tremor measuring 2.9 on the Richter scale in August.

Let’s pass over Leadsom’s description of fracking-related tremors as ‘earthquakes’. To use that term to describe a tremor of 2.9 on the Richter scale is like calling a ripple on the Serpentine a tsunami. [...] Did Leadsom really think the Oil and Gas Authority would report back that tremors were predictable? ... Today’s decision has been described as a moratorium rather than a permanent ban, which will be lifted, according to Leadsom, “when the science changes”. But the science is unlikely to change much in the near future – seismic activity will remain unpredictable, as will the fact that fracking is only capable of causing minor tremors ... So to take Leadsom at her word, this is tantamount to a permanent ban.

This is something of a shame, not least because fracking could give Britain the opportunity to move towards self-sufficiency in energy once again – something we haven’t been for the past 15 years [...] One day, we may well be able to get by without fossil fuels ... But in the meantime ... Boris Johnson once accepted the argument for a UK shale gas industry, to the point he once said he wanted to “leave no stone unfracked”. But he has now ratted on the industry for narrow electoral gain. (MORE - details)
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#2
Yazata Offline
Aren't most UK oil and gas deposits out under the North Sea? A little mag 2 or 3 earthquake out at sea probably wouldn't even be perceptible on shore.
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#3
C C Offline
(Nov 4, 2019 07:41 PM)Yazata Wrote: Aren't most UK oil and gas deposits out under the North Sea? A little mag 2 or 3 earthquake out at sea probably wouldn't even be perceptible on shore.

Supposedly the only active fracking site they had was at Preston New Road in Lancashire, and that was brought to a halt when the seismic activity was detected. The government had already set limits for earthquakes and the 2.9 measurement of this tremor exceeded those. So BoJo actually isn't to blame unless his administration set those standards, which seems unlikely given he hasn't been PM that long.

But the fracking operations did have other potential gas-bearing shale locations they wanted to expand to. Recent pessimism about those areas not yielding what was expected may have made this shut-down decision easier.

Fracking: UK shale reserves may be smaller than previously estimated: "Previous projections of the potential amount of shale gas under the UK may have been significantly overestimated, according to a new study. [...] They argued that there was huge potential for fracked gas particularly in the Bowland shale, a geological formation that runs under Lancashire, Yorkshire, parts of the Midlands and into North Wales. "
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