We banished fracking once in Lancashire, and we’ll do it again
We thought fracking in England was over after the government banned it in 2019. So the call by more than 30 Conservative MPs, along with the fracking company Cuadrilla, to reopen exploration in Lancashire is disappointing. It is also desperate: a last-minute attempt to use the recent energy crisis to save a dying industry.
And the people of Lancashire won’t stand for it. Nor will other communities threatened by this damaging industry. Neither the company nor this minority of MPs seem to understand how united people are against fracking. It’s telling that nobody who is publicly backing the letter is from an area directly threatened by fracking. Most are from the south, not the “industrial” north, as it is perceived to be. These MPs and their allies are at best misinformed and at worst delusional.
The issue should be settled: fracking isn’t safe, it isn’t sustainable, and it simply isn’t supported, certainly not by local communities and local government. Even former backers like George Osborne have recently said it would have little impact on energy prices or supply.
This is all familiar ground for us. One of the main reasons companies like Cuadrilla are on the back foot – forced to plug their remaining wells in the area and prevented from opening more, lobbying for thin support in Westminster – is the local protest movement that played a huge role in securing the 2019 moratorium.
When Cuadrilla first announced plans to frack in Lancashire in 2014, most people in the community – myself included – had an open mind. I was an ordinary retiree who had never protested about anything in my life. I heard about the proposed gas exploration at the Preston New Road site, just outside Blackpool, and at Roseacre Wood, just 600 metres from
Read more on theguardian.com
