2022-02-28
The Daily Sceptic brings us news on rumblings within the Tory party over energy policy.
"Some of the tremors used to justify the moratorium on shale gas exploration in Britain were 'almost imperceptible'" according to the UK regulator. "It should be resumed with 'the vigour of a national war effort', Conservative MPs said last night"
All of which is calculated to improve our trust in neither the regulation of the fracking process, nor in our politicians.
"The 2019 moratorium was announced by Andrea Leadsom, then business secretary, in November of that year “on the basis of the disturbance caused to residents living near Cuadrilla’s Preston New Road site in Lancashire and the 'latest scientific analysis' for the OGA"
"But several other reports, published months later without fanfare on the OGA’s website, prompted calls last night for the decision to be reversed"
"Boris should immediately stop the concreting in of current shale wells and go for gas with all the vigour of a national war effort, which this very nearly is"
Well said. Better still, he could have called for a national debate and referendum on the topic, to run in parallel with a cautious relaxation on new exploration and a new way of appointing a truly independent regulator in which the public could have some confidence - although in truth the regulator would seem to come out of this in rather a better light than our MPs.
Funny how politicians pick and choose the reports that they base policy on, depending on the vagaries of the political wind. One has to ask whether they are really competent to run the country, and if not, why not?
