Member Article

Fracking: Sacrificing the North to fuel the South

If I’m honest, why anyone would support fracking in a country like the UK is beyond me.

Effects on the environment (massive water usage, potentially carcinogenic chemicals, earth tremors) aside, this country is tiny. It fits into Australia 31.5 times and into the Unites States of America 40 times.

We just simply don’t have room to accommodate hydraulic fracking on any large scale, we are quite literally scraping the barrel in our attempt to source natural gas. Honestly it’s getting a bit sad.

It’s particularly relevant to the Yorkshire area, with Third Energy last year proposing to frack for gas in the North Yorkshire Moors.

Are you serious? Is all I have to say to them. Nature’s beauty etc etc aside, our tourism industry which is now booming thanks to years of excellent PR (probably sparked by Yorkshire finishing practically 12th in the 2010 Olympics not to mention the Tour de France) would be utterly trashed.

Welcome to Yorkshire has reported that tourism accounts for £7 billion of Yorkshire’s economy. How many people will want to come and see a field like that pictured above instead of the Moors?

Thankfully, a YouGov survey from January this year have found that support for fracking has dropped since they last asked in March 2014.

Last year people narrowly backed fracking, 42% to 33%. Now the balance of opinion is narrowly against fracking, 41% against, 35% in favour.

People would oppose fracking within a few miles of their home by 58% to 20%. Compensation paid to local councils for community facilities softens opposition a little (26% support, 53% oppose).

It is further softened by compensation to householders themselves (32% support, 46% oppose), but that’s still opposition.

According to supporters of fracking, a British Geological Survey justifies this. It estimates that 1,300 trillion cubic feet of gas lies within the Bowland shale, which stretches from Cheshire to Yorkshire. If 10% could be extracted it could meet UK needs for 40 years.

This is the stuff that Fox News comes up with, at an alarming and hilarious rate. An expansive vague concept backed by dubious research to justify an atrocity - namely that this will be good for the UK, or Yorkshire. But hearing it in my own country, it’s worrying.

Exaggerating the benefits of a ridiculous scheme that is merely distracting companies from coming up with alternatives. 40 years may seem like a lot now but in the grand scheme of things, it’s short term.

They talk about that distant potential, as if its a good thing - how short term and unrealistic. Most of that area is covered by farming land, cities and towns including Liverpool, Manchester, Hull, Stoke-onTrent, Leeds, Derby, Sheffield and York.

The only other fracking permission that have been sought is for two sites in Lancashire by Cuadrilla since the fracking ban was lifted in 2012.

And there’s a reason for that - not only is it a political hot potato, but the expense of having to pay off a community to be able to frack in the vicinity has so far proven too much of an expense.

However as our reliance on gas continues unabated and the supply slowly burns away, it may become a more lucrative proposition - but not necessarily the right one.

It looks like we’re like sacrificing the North to fuel the South and that just does not sit well with me.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .