Lifting the two year ban on fracking won’t ease the immediate energy supply crisis according to industry experts.
As she announced measures to help with domestic and business energy bills, new PM Liz Truss said she was also ending the two year ban on fracturing rocks with high-pressure water to extract shale gas.
There have been concerns that the process can cause ground movement and water pollution and release toxic gases into the environment. There are also fears it could see the industrial development of rural areas while burning shale gas would add to global warming when investment in green technologies should be considered instead.
The PM’s change in policy could see domestic shale gas production begin in as little as six months in areas where there is support.
She said she wants to make the UK a “net energy exporter by 2040” via fracking, nuclear and the acceleration of renewables.
However, even the new Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has previously said fracking would come at a high cost for communities and countryside.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday six months ago he said people calling for fracking’s return misunderstood the current energy situation.
He said: “If we lifted the fracking moratorium, it would take up to a decade to extract sufficient volumes – and it would come at a high cost for communities and our precious countryside.
“No amount of shale gas from hundreds of wells dotted across rural England would be enough to lower the European price any time soon.
“And with the best will in the world, private companies are not going to sell the shale gas they produce to UK consumers below the market price. They are not charities, after all.”
Brian Mullin is the Leicester-based head of planning consultancy Marrons Planning.
He said: “On the basis of past evidence, it is highly doubtful the fracking industry will meaningfully contribute to energy supply in the UK.”
Under planning rules, he said if local residents were given the final say on fracking sites it would be unlikely that they would say yes.
He said: “With lots of fear around environmental harm, this will be highly emotive for local communities.
“If the government was serious about delivery, the evidence suggests that community consent would need to be removed as it demonstrably amounts to a moratorium for delivery. This would be a difficult political decision and would risk alienation of those responsible for putting Prime Minister Truss into office.”
On twitter, former Green party leader Caroline Lucas said the Government u-turn was “a massive kick in the teeth for vast majority of communities who don’t want #fracking, a disaster for #climate policy, & a measure that will make absolutely zero difference to the cost of energy bills.
“Performative politics at its worst.”
