No trust for Regulation of Fracking

At the VoG Scrutiny committee on Monday 17th Oct., one contributor declared:

The UK has no regulatory policy as fracking for gas is completely different from coal mining and conventional oil/gas wells.

The regulator (John Harrison, Environment Agency) was asked about the European groundwater directive, which forbids discharges of some chemicals to groundwater and is strongly restrictive on many others.  Since this Directive supports the bans of fracking in France and parts of Germany, why is the EA in England and Wales not applying it similarly?

… one of the things we will take into consideration (John Harrison replied) when we have an applicant’s information on their permit application. 

That sounds like -  try it and see if there are any problems, rather than ban it until we know the groundwater will not be polluted (highly unlikely on US experience). 

Though government tells us to rely on the EA to protect our environment, this exchange shows we and the VoG Council cannot do so.

FoE on Fracking at the Scrutiny session

Summary of Friends of the Earth contribution (by Max Wallis) at the 17 October Scrutiny Committee:

1. Fracking gas is not a clean fuel, but as bad as coal due to leakages to the air (4-8%) added to combustion CO2, according to the study in the scientific journal Climatic Change.

2. The Minerals Planning Policy Wales does give government guidance (contrary to the Planning Officers' report) and specifies “an environmentally acceptable way” of operation and being “consistent with the principles of sustainable development”. Unless these are demonstrated, the guidance says there's a “case in land use planning terms for placing more restrictions on the development” than ordinary local environmental safeguards.

3. The 29^th Sept. letter to the VoG Leader from the First M|inister, Carwyn Jones, does give a strong steer:
- a “precautionary approach should be taken” and “additional environmental considerations” - presumably the wider ones of being consistent with sustainable development and the UK's carbon targets.

4. As the Licensing system is unified, covering exploration, appraisal and development, the Vale Council could view an exploration application as the first part of a staged application. That would require a full environmental impact assessment, covering all the issues of injected water and chemicals, aquifer and well pollution, methane leakages, seismic tremors, etc. that objectors are bringing up. Indeed, it's irresponsible of the Vale officers to accept the exploration-only application.