LBC: Nick Ferrari 'Let's get cracking with fracking!'
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Energy bills are set to soar, with forecasts suggesting household energy bills could top £4,250 from January. Yet some net-zero critics claim the UK could avoid the crisis by prioritising access to fossil fuels over green supplies.
Fracking was previously banned in 2019 after scientific analysis exposed the risk of seismic activity in relation to the shale gas extraction process.
Yet drilling for gas in England could secure energy supplies and reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign imports.
Francis Egan, chief executive of Cuadrilla Resources, said it was “baffling” that fracking was prohibited and pushed for more support.
Last week he said: “Importing shale gas contributes four times as much emissions as producing it locally, making a mockery of the planned reduction in ‘global’ emissions.
“There are trillions of cubic metres of shale gas under our feet, here in Britain, just waiting to be tapped into and used by British households.”
Mr Egan added: “There’s a bright future ahead that can start to make a real difference to household energy bills, make Britain more energy secure and less reliant on dictators like Putin. We just need someone with vision to make it happen.”
The Government is due to publish a report by the British Geological Survey into the safety of fracking.
This means the next Prime Minister – Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak – will be faced with a decision on whether or not to end the suspension of fracking.
Both Ms Truss and Mr Sunak have said they would support fracking “if local communities support it”.
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A campaign source for Ms Truss said: “This is not about a free-for-all on fracking, Liz has been consistent in her view that we should reverse the blanket ban on fracking in favour of an approach in which it is permitted only as long as it has local consent.”
The Conservative Party manifesto in December 2019 said that the Party “will not support fracking unless the science shows categorically it can be done safely”.
Climate Spokesman for the Conservative Environment Network, Jack Richardson, said: “Several years of attempting to frack in Lancashire shows that communities do not support fracking near them.
“Lifting the moratorium would be insufficient to scale up a shale industry large enough to shift the dial regarding the cost of gas or energy security. Earthquake limits would have to be relaxed too, at a significant political cost.”
So what do YOU think? Should the next Prime Minister approve fracking to cut energy bills? Vote in our poll and leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
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