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UK lawmakers urge ban on fracking

Monday, 26 January 2015 5:56 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 26 January 2015 6:03 PM ]

File photo of a fracking rig

A group of British lawmakers is demanding a ban on hydrofracturing or fracking for oil in the country despite government defiance.

The MPs say fracking must end as it is “incompatible” with climate change targets and could increase the risk of environmental damage to public health.

This is while a cross-party Environmental Audit Committee report has coincided with the revelation of a secret letter from Finance Minister George Osborne asking members of the committee to press ahead with fracking plans “as a personal priority.”

The committee also proposed further changes to the Infrastructure Bill, including removal of the trespass law which gives companies the automatic right to access land for drilling, and a fracking ban in any biologically important areas such as national parks and ancient woodland.

The report says if the UK is to meet the global temperature cap of 2 degrees, only a “small fraction” of the available shale resources could be harnessed.

Now London-based author and environmentalist Lesley Docksey says: “I personally think they are insisting on this purely from money terms. They have too many connections to big energy firms. And they only see the money aspect.”

She told Press TV that fracking has already caused immense damage in the US where the oil excavation method is practised.

There will be a vote on fracking in the House of Commons on Monday, during which a Greenpeace demonstration will take place outside Westminster Palace.

HRK/GHN

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