Fracking for gas threatens us all
Stephen Hall from Wigan Left Unity outlines the case against fracking
This is a critical time for Britain. Faced with the growing threat of climate change, which many believe is behind the unprecedented floods and the freak weather conditions most of us have experienced in recent years, the Government is hellbent on promoting fracking, a process which will not only make the situation worse, but potentially change our landscape forever.
Already, over 60% of the country is to be licensed for drilling by fracking companies such as Cuadrilla, iGas & Dart Energy, all of whom are looking to extract not just shale gas, but the coal bed methane still trapped underground in former coal mining areas. The Government and so-called experts tell us that fracking is safe and that it will bring down people’s energy costs. Also, that the industry will be highly regulated, and health and safety will be rigorously enforced. But none of this is true. In the case of the latter, this is even harder to believe in the face of planned massive cutbacks in Environmental Agency and HSE staff and resources.
Indeed, not only is fracking not safe, but it can be extremely damaging to the environment in its own right. As a consequence it has been banned in several European countries and American states.
There is substantial evidence which shows that it causes the contamination, with toxic chemicals, of underground aquifers and surface water courses. Also, that it causes earth tremors, subsidence, and methane gas leaks which make it a severe threat to the health of humans and animals alike. Recent research at Cornell University, also shows fracking to be a bigger contributor to greenhouse gas emissions than coal fired power stations currently are, despite claims by the industry to the contrary.
The driving force behind this new dash for shale gas and coal bed methane is exactly the same as that which drives the entire fossil fuel industry globally; a comparatively small number of already rich individuals wanting to make even more money, and as quickly as possible, regardless of the potential long term consequences.
One can only suspect the motives of the local and national politicians who are backing the development of the industry, and saying it will be good for us all. For many of them, it is no doubt, simply about securing the largest possible slice of the profits for themselves, in the shape of future highly paid company directorships, share options, annual dividends and/or direct bribes. This of course, is likely on top of hefty financial campaign contributions to their respective political parties and/or chosen causes.
Additionally, this new dash for gas, is driven by the same, prevailing neo-liberal view of politics, the economy and the state, shared by all the main political parties. This is a view which sees the private sector, the market and the profit motive as central to ‘growth’ and everyone’s alleged long term wellbeing, and direct state/public/government intervention into the economy, in any kind of planned and strategic sense, as only having a minor role at best, if at all.
Whatever the direct motivation of this or that company, political party or individual, the actual fruit of it, is a short term, short sighted approach to the growing threat and burgeoning costs of climate change. These costs, according to former World Bank/IMF economist Sir Nicholas Stern, are likely to increase twenty fold in the next decade. Its result is also the lack of a seriously thought out energy policy and approach to Britain’s energy sovereignty, and far too much emphasis being placed on the potential tax revenues of Government from the fracking industry, as a means of plugging or helping to plug its current annual deficit.
Of course, all of the above, is in addition to an almost reckless attitude towards the huge environmental threat which is clearly posed by fracking in relation to the integrity of our water supply, air quality, and general public health, not to mention its impact on great swathes of the beautiful landscape of our currently still green and pleasant land.
We neither need, nor should we want, fracking in any shape or form, either here in Britain or any other country.
The reasons for this are quite simple: there are much more environmentally friendly alternatives at our disposal, such as those contained in the One Million Climate Jobs Report. These alternatives would not only help to secure Britain’s energy sovereignty and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by up to 80% over the next 20 years, but would also put a third of those currently unemployed into decently paid work within a twelve months period. The only thing lacking in reality, is a political will on the part of Government to do it!
How could this be done?
As the Report outlines (see:
(http://www.climate-change– jobs.org/sites/default/files/1MillionClimateJobs_2010.PDF) this could be achieved, at a net annual cost of £18billion, i.e a small fraction of the cost of bailing out the banks, by creating:
* 425,000 jobs in developing and producing renewable electricity via wave, tidal, wind, solar and hydro power.
* 175,000 jobs in refitting, renovating and insulating everyone’s homes, public buildings and commercial premises, so as to greatly reduce everyone’s overall energy usage and energy bills in the process.
* 300,000 jobs in the development of a better, more efficient, massively expanded, fully integrated and cheaper public transport system. Also, by switching freight from road and air to rail, and replacing petrol and diesel engines with ones which will run using renewable energy.
* 100,000 jobs in agriculture, industry and education, which would enable us to produce more of our own food domestically. Also, help us to reduce natural gas leaks, including from landfill sites, redesign industrial processes, and encourage a reduction in the eating of beef, in favour of pigs and poultry or a vegetarian diet. Also, to educate and train people in the new technologies and skills required to develop and bring about all of the above. It’s not rocket science!
** We could no doubt add to the above the creation of many other 100,000s of jobs, building and re-building our coastal and inland flood defences, developing our forestry industry, etc. And how could we pay for it all? Any number of ways: including a Robin Hood Tax on the financial transactions of city of London speculators, clamping down on tax avoidance and evasion by big businesses and rich individuals, and/or introducing a more progressive taxation system all round, in which the richest pay more and the poorest pay little or nothing.
How can we stop fracking and bring about policies along these lines?
There is no magic bullet! In order to be successful, the strategy we need will have to combine a whole range of interrelated tactics. These tactics will vary from the more mundane (such as lobbying of local Councillors and MPs, to letter writing to the press, and door-to-door canvassing and leafleting to build up public opposition to planning applications by the fracking companies) to the establishment of ‘protest camps’ such as we have seen at Balcombe last year, and Barton Moss more recently, when the former proves insufficient to stop them.
These tactics will also need to include, our directly counterposing to the potential catastrophic environmental threat of fracking, the more sensible and environmentally friendlier alternatives at our disposal, such as those outlined above and elsewhere, which will not only help as already stated, secure our energy sovereignty and reduce everyone’s energy costs, but additionally help us to create a significantly greater number of better paid and longer term jobs AND fight the growing threat of climate change in the process.
Even if all these tactics are unsuccessful, in the short to medium term, this basic kind of resistance isstill nevertheless, highly useful on several counts. When combined togetherthey help to build up more widespread public opposition to fracking in general,and for the alternatives we are arguing for.
They also help to demonstrate to the industry, and potential investors in it, that any profits tobe generated from fracking, if there are to be any, will be hard won, both financially and in terms of overall publicacceptance.
Given the present Government’s professed ‘strong’ commitment to the development of the industry, and what Tory PM Cameron refers to as a “shale gas revolution” – combined with the weak kneed opposition to fracking from Labour (and lack of a credible alternative energy policy) – it is becoming clear that the kind of public pressure, campaigning and direct action by activists we have so far seen, isn’t by itself going to achieve our desired objectives.
However, it is only through our intensifying and building up such public pressure, campaigning and direct action, in addition to our developing a unified political approach to the present Government, or any other Government which seeks to go along the same path, that our possible future victory might be achieved.
As a consequence we need to be thinking not just of creating a more powerful united front in terms of our present day to day actions, but in relation to making fracking a central issue at the forthcoming local, European, and next General Election. We need to make the thought of any Government which supports fracking, and which isn’t prepared to invest in the kind of practical alternatives, such as those outlined above, which would help to guarantee all of us a long lasting and sustainable future, being completely untenable.
In order to achieve that and to strengthen and give voice to the diverse range of groups opposed to fracking, the formation of an electoral united front which seeks to give expression to it is essential.
I am hopeful that at our forthcoming conference in Manchester on the 29th March, our new Party, Left Unity will commit itself to this general policy and overall approach, and to working alongside anyone, whether they decide to join our party or not, who is committed to the same, or similar objective, notwithstanding our possible differences on other issues. I think it will bring to all those of us who are opposed to fracking, the common objective we are looking for.
Stephen Hall
20-02-2014
3 comments
3 responses to “Fracking for gas threatens us all”
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One of the fruits of the Barton Moss protests has been the regular attention to it of the nightly BBC regional news programme for the North West, which has recently sent its reporters to Calabria in Spain, where the regional government has banned fracking in defiance of Madrid. This kind of regional media coverage enables us, as Stephen says, to take this issue to the people in door to door campaigns, counterposing fracking to the alternative policy he sketches above, especially in the North West EU elections this spring. A motion on fracking from Stockport LU branch has gone both to the Peoples Assembly and to the LY Policy Confernce in Manchester on 29th. Support it and let’s gear ourselves up to take this campaign to the working class.
Er – Calabria is in Italy. The ban is in Cantabria, Spain (Cap. Santander).
Sorry, Julian – my mistake, which is particularly bad since I’ve spent months in both places. I’ll beat myself up later! There is no room for lack of rigour like that in LU.