Shale gas wells ‘should be approved centrally’ rather than going through the usual planning process, to help solve the energy crisis.
Potential fracking sites should be treated like new nuclear power plants and fast-tracked through the planning system, according to more than 20 Conservative MPs and peers including Lord Frost. [bold, links added]
In an open letter published in The Telegraph, the parliamentarians urge the next prime minister to classify shale gas sites as “nationally significant infrastructure projects”, meaning that they could be given a green light centrally rather than going through the usual approval process.
Liz Truss is expected to lift the fracking ban as soon as this week, having pledged to allow sites in areas where there is local support, to help the UK end its reliance on energy imported from overseas. Her business and energy secretary is expected to be Jacob Rees-Mogg, who used a Cabinet meeting in February to call for an end to the moratorium.
Last month, in a bid to increase the chances of residents agreeing to sites, Cuadrilla, one of the main firms involved in fracking in the UK before the ban was imposed in 2019, said it would put hundreds of millions of pounds into “community funds” for those living near shale gas wells.
But the Tory parliamentarians, including Lord Frost, an influential ally of Ms Truss, said the next prime minister should go significantly further than simply lifting the moratorium.
The MPs and peers, led by Craig Mackinlay, the chairman of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group, said:
“The Levelling Up Secretary says the Government will fast track nuclear projects. If the new government wants us to start fracking, we must similarly fast track shale gas sites through the planning system by treating them as nationally significant infrastructure projects.”
Last week, Greg Clark, who has been Levelling Up Secretary since Michael Gove’s resignation in July, unveiled plans to set shorter deadlines for examinations of “nationally significant infrastructure projects”, such as nuclear plants and offshore wind farms, in a move designed to speed up decisions and result in projects being built more quickly.
‘Absurd’ that UK imports most of its gas
In their open letter in The Telegraph, the Tory parliamentarians said fracking sites should be treated as part of the same regime given the energy crisis facing the UK.
Among the signatories are Esther McVey, the former work and pensions secretary, Julian Knight, the chairman of the Commons digital and culture committee, Huw Merriman, who chairs the transport committee, and Adam Holloway, a government whip.
They state:
“Energy prices are soaring while 1,300 trillion cubic feet of shale gas sits idle under our feet. Just 10 per cent of this, deemed to be the most easily accessible, would give the UK self-sufficiency for 50 years.
By not using British shale gas resources, we’re missing out on tens of thousands of well-paid jobs, losing billions from the UK economy whilst enriching foreign exchequers, depriving councils and residents of millions of pounds of tax revenue, and putting our country at the mercy of a Russia-dominated European gas market as we all scrabble for the same limited resource.
The Climate Change Committee says we will still be using gas by 2050. It is absurd that we import the majority of it from abroad.”
The 2019 moratorium was announced by Andrea Leadsom, then business secretary, “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 Oil and Gas Authority (OGA).
But other reports, published months later on the OGA’s website, have prompted calls for the decision to be reversed. Kwasi Kwarteng, the current Business and Energy Secretary, commissioned a review of the available evidence which has yet to be published.
Read rest at The Telegraph
