Fracking ignorance

A NEW poll of public attitudes to fracking has indicated that more people in the UK support than oppose its use – little thanks to our opinion formers.

Robert Woollard is quite a big cheese in the Tory party. He’s chairman of Conservative Grassroots, a network of party activists.

Their numbers are declining. What is to be done? Mr Woollard is clear.

Mr Cameron must invest more resources into rebuilding local associations around the country and stop promoting unpopular policies such as same-sex marriage, HS2, uncontrolled fracking and on shore wind farms, if he wants to re-engage with ordinary people and party members.

So it seems the government has some work to do to get across the logic of its energy policy. Good luck with that. But what’s this about “uncontrolled” fracking? The regulation for fracking is going to be very tight. Oodles of permits will be required, and the Environment Agency has recently proposed – off its own bat – to lengthen the consultation period considerably.

This seems to have passed Mr Woollard by. He needs to do some basic homework before makes statements. Otherwise he might look a chump.

Talking of chumps, The Church of England’s Diocese of Blackburn has published a leaflet saying that, for Christians, fracking presents “a choice between economic gain and a healthy environment.” It calls on Christians “to protect our drinking water, and the rest of God’s glorious Creation”.

This is bonkers. God’s glorious creation wouldn’t have provided enough drinking water for us all without human intervention. If man had left God’s glorious creation as we found it, famines would still periodically be killing many people. We would be eking out a poor existence tilling the fields while the Church thrived in prosperity. God didn’t leave the stone to build cathedrals lying about on the surface and say ‘Take what you need’, mankind had to disfigure God’s glorious creation by quarrying.

Ignoring the history of fracking both here and in the States, the piously ignorant leaflet claims fracking is untested. And worse, it’s “potentially harmful”. As is everything. Railways? Coal mines? Gas in houses? Flying? The internet? If you can never do anything, in case it may cause some harm, you will continue to plough your field and shiver in your hovel.

The profit motive is classed as a “temptation”.

This, of course, raises the question of how consideration for God the Creator enters into the decision-making process.

Exhibit A, the parable of the talents.God helps those who help themselves.

To borrow a word from one of Mr Woollard’s contacts: bonkeroony.

Mark Durkan is the environment minister in Belfast. He it is who would have to approve any fracking project in Northern Ireland, and it is clear Mr Durkan’s decision is to put off having to make any decision for a long as he possibly can.

I am not going to make any decision until all the facts and scientific evidence are established. To do otherwise would be reckless and irresponsible. Do we need to extract shale gas? Can it be done safely? Would it be done responsibly? These are the responsible questions. All facts are not in. The scientific evidence is far from being established

With tens of thousands of wells fracked in the US and some 200 even here, what more facts and evidence does the timorous Durkan think he may need? “All” the facts will never be in. Wimpy politicians can always be craven and ask for more information.

Is this what the timorous Durkan came into politics for, to twist and turn and prevaricate and avoid any decisions on his watch? It’s an ignoble ambition, Mr Durkan.

Reuters analyst John Kemp points a finger at Britain’s nimbyism. “Just as Britain’s politicians and voters cannot agree on where to site oil and gas wells, they cannot agree where to put new homes, new rail routes, new highways, new airports, new power plants or any other form of industrial development.”

The result is dysfunctional and over-priced housing, brutally crowded commuter railways, a congested road network and worries about how to keep the lights on when the current generations of coal-fired and nuclear power plants are retired.

It’s the British disease of postponement and fiddle faddle, buttressed by determination to hide away from inconvenient facts.