He wasn’t able to announce the £300 off household energy bills that was promised during the election campaign. Nor could he unveil any massive new solar farms or wind turbines. Still, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband did have one message to cheer the party faithful in his conference speech today: he is going to ban shale oil and gas for all time. ‘Let’s ban fracking and send the frackers packing,’ he thundered. But can Miliband really do that and outlaw fracking forever? Only a fool would pretend that he can.
Right now, there is a moratorium on extracting shale oil and gas in the UK, which could, in theory anyway, be lifted at any time by a new minister. With Reform pledging to lift it, and way ahead in the polls, that is no longer a far-flung prospect. So just to make completely sure there is absolutely no chance of the UK developing a lucrative new shale industry, Miliband now plans to pass legislation to make it permanently illegal.
Miliband’s planned fracking law smacks of desperation
The trouble is, that is not going to work. There are two big problems with the planned legislation. For starters, Miliband can’t bind a future parliament with this law. True, he can make it a little harder for an incoming energy minister to give the industry the green light. He or she won’t simply be able to lift the moratorium and instead will have to repeal Miliband’s new law, which will delay the whole process. The second and bigger problem is this: the case for British fracking is becoming clearer and clearer all the time.
The industry has been booming in the United States, in Canada, and now in countries that are developing new fields such as Argentina, China and Mexico. As more and more countries develop shale oil and gas, and seem – so far – to be doing it safely, it is becoming harder and harder to maintain the ban on it in Europe.
We also keep on finding more of the stuff. The Gainsborough Trough in Lincolnshire, for example, now appears to have enough energy to supply the UK for seven years. It is becoming harder to ignore just how much shale oil and gas the UK has at its disposal. And, perhaps most seriously of all, Britain’s eye-watering industrial electricity prices, with costs double those of France and four times those of the United States, are closing down whole swathes of industry, which could, of course, be easily fixed by developing our own fields.
Miliband’s planned fracking law smacks of desperation. The case for a British shale oil and gas industry is becoming stronger all the time, and the damage done to the economy by refusing to allow it is becoming more and more starkly apparent. The Energy Secretary can slow it down if he insists. But he can’t ban fracking forever – and he just looks ridiculous by pretending that he can.
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