The House of Commons’ Environmental Audit Committee wants a moratorium on fracking so that what it calls the ‘huge uncertainties’ of its impact on the environment can be resolved. If they hadn’t noticed, we already have had a moratorium on fracking. All activity ceased in 2011 after a couple of minor earth tremors near Blackpool were linked to exploratory drilling by Cuadrilla in the area. What the company now wants to do – and in which it is being frustrated at present by Lancashire’s planners – is to resume exploration, having changed their procedures in response to the tremors.
If there are ‘huge uncertainties’ over fracking, how would they ever be resolved without testing the technology? A period of experimentation, measurement and redesign is exactly what you expect in the development of any technology before it goes forward to commercial use. Yet different standards seem to be applied to renewable technologies.
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