Campaigners have reacted angrily to plans to end the ban on fracking.

Prime Minister Liz Truss has today (September 8) announced that the moratorium on fracking, in place since 2019, will come to an end, with companies now able to seek planning permission to frack in the York area.

Speaking in Parliament a short while ago Ms Truss said the ban on fracking in England will end, meaning production of domestic shale gas could begin in as little as six months.

A spokesperson for Frack Free Ryedale said: "Everyone is worried about high energy prices and the terrible situation with the war in Ukraine. We are all affected by this. But repeatedly the government has been told by independent energy experts that fracking is not the solution. Not only is the industry unproven but any meaningful production is years away. Not only that, but the gas belongs to the companies that extract it and would be sold at market price. In fact earlier this year the then Business Secretary, Mr Kwarteng, stated that fracking would not lower prices, production of any useful quantity of gas was a decade away and that fracking was not the solution to the energy crisis. The lifting of the fracking moratorium is a political decision, not a sensible decision. The quickest way to lower bills is to reduce our dependency on gas by better insulating homes and developing more renewables. Renewables are now nine times cheaper than expensive gas. We remain opposed to fracking for all these reasons and because of its unacceptable impacts on the environment, climate change, the countryside and communities."

Ryedale District Councillor Mike Potter, said: "

With a huge network of climate and economic experts to advise government, you have to wonder why they are choosing to support the development of a completely new source of fossil fuels, when they already admit that it will take decades to develop and will not reduce world gas prices. Transition means changing from one state or condition to another. Therefore, an entirely new source of fracked gas wouldn’t mean transitioning, rather than extending and expanding gas reliance. Anyone that now believes climate change is man-made, an existential threat to all life on earth and with us right now, must surely be questioning this decision and the motives behind it. The moratorium on fracking was only to be lifted after proving it to be safe. Will that evidence be released in public? What effect will this have on the country’s legal commitment to net zero by 2050? What impact can this have on the country’s energy security in the short term, when government has no current plans around energy efficiency and are holding back much faster and cheaper renewables? Precisely what will ‘community consent’ for fracking entail? So many questions, so few answers."

 

 Friends of the Earth campaigner Danny Gross said: “Fracking is disruptive, unpopular and will do little to boost energy security or bring down bills.

“Fossil fuels are at the root of so many of the problems we currently face.

“We need clean, modern solutions to the energy and climate crises. That means insulation, energy efficiency and developing cheap renewables like onshore wind and solar.”