Green Energy Firm Fights UK Fracking Plans

Green Energy Firm Fights UK Fracking Plans
Green energy firm Ecotricity is challenging the fracking industry by submitting applications for its new Green Gas Mills on sites already proposed for fracking.

Green energy firm Ecotricity is challenging the fracking industry by submitting applications for its new Green Gas Mills on sites already proposed for fracking.

 

 

The company has put in applications at two potential Cuadrilla fracking sites in Lancashire - Preston New Road and Roseacre Wood.

“We want to show that there‘s an alternative to fracking and start a local debate in the areas directly affected by it, in the same way we want to start a debate at the national level, including the House of Commons,” Dale Vince, Ecotricity founder, said.

“It’s important not just to oppose fracking, but to have an answer as to where Britain is going to get its gas from as North Sea supplies run out,” he added.

Cuadrilla was not immediately available for comment.

The UK Department of Communities and Local Government said in October that it had upheld three appeals related to shale gas exploration at the Preston New Road and Roseacre Wood sites in Lancashire, after the local authority opted to block applications to hydraulically fracture wells at the sites in June 2015.

The Department said in an official statement that it would grant Cuadrilla planning permission for drilling and monitoring work at Preston New Road, as well as the construction of two seismic monitoring arrays at the Roseacre Wood exploration site. At Preston New Road, Cuadrilla will be allowed to drill up to four exploratory wells and frack those wells.

The British Geological Survey estimates that there could be some 2,281 trillion cubic feet of shale gas contained within the Bowland Basin in northwest England, where Preston New Road and Roseacre Wood are located.

In addition to Cuadrilla’s impending fracking plans, IGas was granted consent in November to drill up to two exploratory wells in Misson Springs, North Nottinghamshire. Back in May, officials in northern England approved a shale gas fracking application from Third Energy for its Kirby Misperton site.

Earlier this month, Cuadrilla CEO Francis Egan signed six public commitments to the county of Lancashire to commit Cuadrilla to putting Lancashire first in terms of creating jobs, investment, new skills and community initiatives as a result of shale gas exploration and, if exploration is successful, shale gas production in Lancashire.

In May 2013, the UK’s Institute of Directors (IoD) issued a report that argued investment in UK shale gas could peak at $5.6 billion per year while supporting approximately 74,000 jobs.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May's House of Commons voting record shows that she has long been a supporter of the development of a shale gas industry in the UK.



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