Britain Lifts Ban on Gas Fracking

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Facts

  • On Thursday, Britain lifted a three year ban on fracking — the process of extracting shale gas from rocks by breaking them up. The practice had been banned due to concerns that it could trigger tremors, but increased pressures on global energy supplies have prompted leaders to prioritize developing new sources of fuel in recent months.
  • Fracking has been a topic of debate in recent years in the UK. Cuadrilla, an oil and gas exploration company, was forced to close its fracking site in Lancashire in 2019 after more than 120 tremors — most of which were too small to be felt — were recorded in its vicinity.
  • The moratorium was reversed alongside the publication of a scientific assessment of the practice of fracking authored by the British Geological Survey (BGS), which found that there is still a limited empirical understanding of the impacts of drilling shale rock to mine gas and oil.
  • Speaking to the House of Commons, Business and Energy Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg dismissed what he calls the "hysteria" around fracking, claiming that "it is safe." However, he added that fracking would still be subject to approval by local residents.
  • A recent poll found that 87% of the public supported renewable energy in the fall of 2021, versus just 17% who supported fracking.
  • According to the government — which reportedly aims to make the UK a net energy exporter by 2040 — gas could start flowing from fracking sites within six months. Applications for new drilling can reportedly now be made.

Sources: Reuters, BBC News, Guardian, and Sky News.

Narratives

  • Left narrative, as provided by The Guardian. According to the BGS, little progress has been made in reducing and predicting the risk of earthquakes caused by fracking, and the companies themselves are lobbying for regulations on the drilling that causes tremors to be substantially reduced. The Conservatives are greenwashing this dangerous and environmentally irresponsible practice at the cost of the British people.
  • Right narrative, as provided by The Telegraph. Fracking is just one of a portfolio of long-term reforms — including an increase in nuclear power capacity and renewable energy sources —that will aid the UK's energy security and reduce the nation's dependence on Russian oil. Even if only one-tenth of the 1.3K trillion cubic feet of gas that could lie underneath the UK is extracted, it could meet Britain's gas needs for decades.