Climate Deniers Help Tories Weaken Fracking Rules

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Climate deniersย Viscountย Matt Ridleyย andย Lord Nigel Lawson defended a controversialย fracking U-turn by the Conservative-led government in the House of Lords last night that will reduce safety standards for shale gasย exploration.

The Labour party tried to force through more stringent measures in the hotly contestedย Infrastructure Bill currently going through Parliament designed to protect groundwater which could supply homes andย businesses.ย 

But the governmentโ€™s counter-proposal,ย tabled by Baroness Kramer, the Liberal Democrat transport minister, watered-down the language around safeguarding groundwater supplies from fracking. It now allows the relevant Secretary of State to define what constitutes a โ€˜protectedย areaโ€™.

Ridley, who has a profitable coal mine on his country estate, defended these โ€œsensibleโ€ changes. โ€œCrucially, the amendments also allow flexibility so that the industry can learn, adapt and evolve as it is going on,โ€ heย said.

โ€œThat is why it is crucial to leave some flexibility in the Bill with respect to the definition of groundwater areas, protected areas and so on,โ€ continued the king of coal, who yesterday, writing in The Times, called fracking opponents โ€œincreasinglyย irrationalโ€.

Baroness Verma, under-secretary of state for the Department of Energy and Climate Change, explained that the definition of protected areas and groundwater zones will be decided โ€œat a later stageโ€. This will be after the bill is made law and is likely to be in July after the next government isย elected.

Original Proposal

Labourโ€™s original proposal โ€“ passed two weeks ago in the House of Commons โ€“ would have restricted fracking in water source protection zones and other protected areas and imposed stringent regulations onย drilling.

Baroness Jones of the Green Party, criticised the government for its U-turn: โ€œOur drinking water needs protection; I cannot believe that anyone here does not agree withย that.โ€

However, Lord Lawson, chairman of the climate denial charity The Global Warming Policy Foundationย (GWPF) did notย agree.

โ€œGroundwater, in aquifers, is very close to the ground โ€“ that is why it is called that โ€“ while the fracking occurs between one mile and a mile and a half deep,โ€ he said. โ€œWhat she is saying has no meritย whatever.โ€

Ridley, an advisor to the GWPF and a landed aristocrat, added: โ€œMuch of the opposition to shale gas โ€“ some of which we have heard today โ€“ is based on myths that are popular among the upper middle class in grand ruralย areas.โ€ย 

Baroness Verma told the House of Lords: โ€œWe must be very careful not to put in place restrictions in areas that do not achieve the intended aim of the condition or that go beyond it and needlessly damage the potential development of the shaleย industry.โ€

Legitimateย Concerns

Labour did not force a vote on the new conditions, which were adopted into the bill. But Lord Tunnicliffeย warned that Labour would not support the government when the bill returned to the House ofย Commons.

โ€œDavid Cameron has repeatedly ignored peopleโ€™s genuine and legitimate environmental concerns over shale gas,โ€ Tunnicliffe said. โ€œRegulatory gaps need to be filled to ensure the right conditions are in place before any drilling to explore or extract unconventional gas isย permitted.โ€

Jones of the Green party said this was not nearly enough. โ€œLabour has flip-flopped badly on this, and I cannot help but feel that it does not understand how important this issue is,โ€ sheย said.

โ€œIn passing the Bill we are actually letting the Secretary of State decide on protected areas. I am a politician, and many people here perhaps are politicians, but even I would not trust a politician to decide onย that.โ€

@kylamandel

Photo: The Journal via Creativeย Commons

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Kyla is a freelance writer and editor with work appearing in the New York Times, National Geographic, HuffPost, Mother Jones, and Outside. She is also a member of the Society for Environmental Journalists.

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