DrillOrDrop has compiled election results from areas with oil and gas sites. We’ve also reviewed the results for key politicians in the fracking debate
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Four green policy concerns Boris Johnson must address immediately
Johnson looks set to prioritise “getting Brexit done” during his first few days within his new majority and while that will have huge ramifications for UK green policy, there are also a few other areas that the Prime Minister needs to address immediately in order to boost business confidence in delivering a net-zero economy by 2050.
So, what should be at the top of the Tories’ bulging in-tray of green policy issues?
1) Future-proof post-Brexit environmental standard loopholes
As mentioned, Johnson will look to pass his “oven-baked” Brexit deal, before Christmas, including a raft of changes that would alter 40 years of EU environmental regulations.
Part of the Withdrawal Agreement on the departure from the EU customs union and the laws that it enforces is a new regulatory system that the UK will need to stick to as part of any future trade deals with EU nations. This has been called a “level playing field”.
This would require the UK to conform to EU standards on environmental policies and others as part of a trade deal, but the UK has no legal obligation to maintain current standards if no trade deal is agreed, this has already sparked concern that the UK could renegade on environmental standards in pursuit of other trade deals, notably with the US. This includes directives on industrial emissions, transport emissions – including a variety of rules on Euro 5, 6 and 7 vehicles – waste, and biodiversity.
The Prime Minister needs to immediately address concerns that the UK could renegade these standards in pursuit of short-term trade deals. Ideally, the approved deal that eventually passes through Government has mechanisms in place for an independent body – notably the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) – to ensure that environmental standards aren’t relaxed and are improved upon as the UK nears its net-zero target deadline.
Earlier this year, a coalition of almost 40 environmental organisations including Greenpeace, WWF UK and ClientEarth called for the Draft Environment Bill to be altered, to ensure that the public can request disclosure from the UK’s post-Brexit watchdog.
Speaking of the Environment Bill…
Continue reading Four green policy concerns Boris Johnson must address immediately
AJ Lucas Struggles To Raise Capital Amid UK Fracking Ban
Investors have ignored AJ Lucas’ latest attempt to raise money for its UK oil and gas exploration efforts.
Investors have ignored AJ Lucas’ latest attempt to raise money for its UK oil and gas exploration efforts.
The company announced yesterday that it’s latest raising aimed at retail shareholders had raised just $2.4 million from retail investors through a 19-for-20 entitlement offer instead of the $8.1 million it was looking for.
Making the rejection even more notable was that the poor uptake came after the offer was extended by a week.
Yesterday Lucas told the ASX that the retail offer had been completed with applications for 37.1 million shares at $0.065 each.
Last month AJ Lucas revealed institutional investors had only paid $26.2 million for new shares, when it was looking for $46.3 million.
This brings the total amount raised under the Entitlement Offer to approximately $28.6 million.
The money raised is supposed to be for ongoing activities in the UK, where the company operates the Cuadrilla joint venture.
Ineos posts new injunction notices at proposed Woodsetts shale gas site
The shale gas company, Ineos, has installed new protest injunction notices at its proposed exploration site at Woodsetts in south Yorkshire.
The company first installed notices at Woodsetts in July 2017, days before it announced plans to apply for planning permission there.
The notices were later removed in 2019 after the Court of Appeal quashed sections of the injunction as unlawful.
Ineos does not have planning permission for the Woodsetts site.
Rotherham Council refused consent to drill and test a vertical shale gas well on 8 March 2018 and again on 7 September 2018.
The application did not include hydraulic fracturing but local people have said they see it as a precursor to fracking in the area.
A decision is still awaited on the permission after Ineos’s application went to a public inquiry in June 2019.
Since then, the government issued a moratorium on fracking, following earth tremors caused by Cuadrilla’s operations at Preston New Road in Lancashire.
The Woodsetts inquiry inspector, Katie Peerless, asked the parties, which included the local group, Woodsetts Against Fracking, to submit their comments on the moratorium.
Her report is due by 13 January 2020. The final decision will be made by the local government secretary.
FLAWED ADVICE
WITH THANKS TO DR. RUGMAN
RAG Newsletter December 2019
In this Newsletter
Preston New Road
2016 Government Report
Cuadrilla Downsizing
Protest Policing – and the Cost
The Future
Dig in for fracking fight
Last month the UK Government took the energy industry by surprise by announcing a moratorium on the quest for shale gas onshore in England.
The decision generated a range of reactions, with the green lobby fervently hoping that this is a forever decision. But it’s nothing of the sort. Should the Tories be voted back into power on December 12, sooner or later an attempt will be made to remove the shackles, allowing the shale gas quest onshore UK to restart, making a mockery of the party’s greenwash pledges made during the current election campaign.
Protests will begin again and become increasingly well organised when Cuadrilla tries to resume operations at Little Plumpton.
Last month the UK Government took the energy industry by surprise by announcing a moratorium on the quest for shale gas onshore in England.
The catalyst was the magnitude 2.9 quake that hit the Cuadrilla-operated Little Plumpton site in Lancashire on August 26. It was the third quake recorded in less than a week.
To It’s credit, the UK’s Oil and Gas Authority quickly shut down the operation pending a review which led to the moratorium.
The decision generated a range of reactions, with the green lobby fervently hoping that this is a forever decision. But it’s nothing of the sort. Should the Tories be voted back into power on December 12, sooner or later an attempt will be made to remove the shackles, allowing the shale gas quest onshore UK to restart, making a mockery of the party’s greenwash pledges made during the current election campaign.
Protests will begin again and become increasingly well organised when Cuadrilla tries to resume operations at Little Plumpton.
If Labour comes to power, it is doubtful that the English shale gas hunt will restart. The SNP position for Scotland is already clear, much to the annoyance of the companies keen to prospect for shale gas in the central belt, where there once was a shale oil industry which petered out at the dawn of North Sea oil and gas.
I’m implacably against onshore UK “fracking”. As years tick by, it will likely be discredited as the energy transition becomes unstoppable.
There is no place for an industry as intensive, disruptive and potentially polluting as shale gas in these densely populated islands where even northern rural areas of England are crowded compared with the wide open spaces of the US.
But even there, where fracking has played a massive role in reversing what had been a long-term decline in domestic production, questions are increasingly being asked about its environmental track record.
Key staff quit Cuadrilla as company scales down fracking site
At least 10 staff have said they have left the shale gas company, Cuadrilla, in the past few months.
They include the senior geoscientist, financial controller, communications manager, director of government and public affairs and the executive assistant to the CEO, Francis Egan.
Fracking could start again as firm behind drilling tries to get ban overturned
Energy firm Cuadrilla, which suspended fracking in Lancashire after several tremors in August, is hoping to convince the Government the practice is safe. Cuadrilla has said it is working to address those concerns and hoped the prospective Bowland gas resource could be further appraised and developed. Both the Government and Cuadrilla continue to say natural gas will play an important role in providing energy for the UK for decades to come.
‘Black wall’ as government finaly releases its report on fracking
‘Black wall’ of redacted pages as UK fracking report finally released
This article is more than 11 months old
People will wonder why there is so much the government wants to conceal, says Greenpeace
The only page of the report not censored at all is the cover. Photograph: Cabinet Office
The government has heavily redacted a secret report into the fracking industry after it was forced to comply with a court order for its release.
The Whitehall report on the UK shale gas sector emerged on Monday after a years-long battle to uncover the hidden documents – but with three quarters of its pages blacked out. The 48-page report, seen by the Guardian, includes 37 pages that are entirely blacked out and only one – the front cover – that was left uncensored. The remaining paragraphs outline plans to help frackers by countering the public’s rising public opposition to the industry with a government-led campaign to develop a “pro-shale narrative”.
The report, written in 2016, was finally released after an information tribunal ruled that it would be in the public interest to disclose its findings. Greenpeace has fought a long legal battle with the government over the suppression of the document.
Rebecca Newsom, Greenpeace UK’s head of politics, said: “Looking at this black wall of redacted pages, people will be wondering why there’s so little the government is willing to reveal about fracking and so much it wants to hide. “If ministers have really dropped their support for this polluting industry, why not publish this report in full and come clean about what’s been going on behind closed doors for years?”
The report’s unredacted paragraphs said that the government was “already undertaking crucial work on communications to increase public acceptability of shale” and promised further government help to develop a “pro-shale national/regional narrative” and “shale champions”.
Greenpeace said the Conservative government should ban fracking permanently after it called an immediate halt to drilling in England this month. The government said it would not agree to any future fracking “until compelling new evidence is provided” that proves fracking could be safe, amid concerns over ground tremors caused by drilling.
“People would feel much more confident about the Conservatives’ pledge on fracking if they used the overwhelming evidence of its unacceptable risks to people and our environment to introduce a permanent ban, and put this industry to bed once and for all,” Newsom said.
Fracking also known as hydraulic fracturing, involves pumping water, chemicals and sand underground at high pressure to fracture shale rock and release trapped oil and gas. Environmental campaigners argue that fracking should be banned because it increases carbon dioxide emissions and causes air and water pollution, alongside ground tremors.
Jon Trickett, the shadow minister for the Cabinet Office, said the Conservative party has “bent over backwards to serve the interests of big business, especially the oil and gas industry” while ignoring the voices of local people.
The report was released to Unearthed, the investigations arm of Greenpeace, after a lengthy battle between the campaigners and the Cabinet Office.
Greenpeace uncovered some of the report’s findings last year through a Freedom of Information (FoI) request but the campaigners were barred by Cabinet Office officials from obtaining the full report.
The FoI found that the shale gas industry was unlikely to achieve the exaggerated economic benefits promised by its proponents due to strong local opposition to fracking, with only 4% of the UK’s potential shale projects likely to go ahead in the face of strong opposition.
Ken Cronin of UK Onshore Oil and Gas said the case for UK shale gas development “is stronger than ever” because the UK is relying more heavily on gas from Qatar and Russia.
“This report plainly shows that there is still a lot of work left for us to do, which is what our members will be focusing on in the coming months,” he said.
The government’s own data revealed last month that public opposition to shale gas fracking has climbed to record highs while support for the shale industry has slumped to the lowest levels since records began six years ago.
The Cabinet Office declined to comment.
