Na 2
jaar de zaak te hebben tegengehouden heeft de Britse regering
eindelijk een geheim rapport over schaliegas- en oliewinning
‘vrijgegeven….’ Dat laatste tussen aanhalingstekens daar het
grootste deel van het rapport onleesbaar is gemaakt door diezelfde
Britse regering, ronduit een schandaal en het zet bovendien nog eens
extra vraagtekens bij de mate van democratie die de Britten
‘genieten……’
Ronduit
onbeschoft zoals het geteisem in Londen omgaat met haar burgers,
immers de schaliegas- en oliewinning kent net als de aardgaswinning
slachtoffers, bovendien wordt met deze vorm van winning (van fossiele
‘brandstof’), hele gebieden vervuild, evenals het grondwater……..
Waar deze winningen hebben plaatsgevonden, blijft een maanlandschap
achter……
Voorts moeten chemicaliën ten behoeve van het fracken worden afgevoerd en dat betekent in de praktijk, zoals in de VS gebeurt, dat men het vervuilde water ‘gewoon’ laat weglopen in rivieren of zeeën en het zou me niet eens verbazen als men het ter plekke gewoon
de bodem in laat verdwijnen….. Als deze afvalstoffen netjes vernietigd zouden moeten worden, zou alleen daarmee de prijs van schaliegas al fiks stijgen….. Daarover gesproken: er gaat een enorme bak subsidie naar de oliemaatschappijen die deze manier van winning in de VS en GB gebruiken…. Het laten weglopen van de troep richt veel schade aan, schade die amper is te herstellen, terwijl de gevolgen van deze schade in de nabije toekomst een enorme bak belastinggeld zal kosten…….
Verder komen bij het fracken grote hoeveelheden methaangas vrij, gas behorend tot de sterkste broeikasgassen op onze aarde en is een veel sterkere aanjager van de klimaatverandering dan CO2, daarmee is fracken een extra aanjager van die verandering in temperatuur….. (de kosten om de gevolgen van de klimaatverandering tegen te gaan en de schade te herstellen die ermee gepaard gaat, zijn al helemaal niet te berekenen…..)
Schaliegas-
en oliewinning zou als men alle milieuregels zou handhaven, veel te
duur zijn… Ach gelul, deze uitermate vervuilende methode van
winning is een gevaar voor mens, dier en natuur, dus gewoon niet doen, beter nog: verbieden!
Lees het
volgende artikel van Jasmine en dat werd geplaatst op Unearthed
(Greenpeace) en zie de arrogantie van de machthebbers….. Dit
rapport zou voldoende moeten zijn om een regering te laten vallen en
als dat niet gebeurt zou de kiezer de Tory Party moeten
afstraffen….. Helaas werkt het niet zo, de BBC maakt vooral veel
reclame voor de regering en gevaarlijke gekken als Boris Johnson en Nigel Farage, die het volk vertellen dat de klimaatverandering een sprookje is en dat we vooral
alles uit de bodem moeten slepen om te verbranden…….
Overigens is het bij ons niet veel beter, zie wat hufter Menno Snel van D66
heeft geflikt met de schunnige terugvordering van kosten voor de kinderopvang door de Belastingdienst en dan zo onbeschoft zijn te blijven zitten*, de
‘vent’ zou zich de oren van de kop moeten schamen!!! (terwijl de klokkenluider van de Belastingdienst die e.e.a. aan het licht bracht op non-actief is gesteld….)
Government
finally releases secret fracking report
The
still-censored document reveals details of huge Whitehall effort to
support development of shale gas industry in the UK
The
Cabinet Office has finally released its – still heavily redacted –
secret report on the fracking industry, following a 22-month Freedom
of Information battle with Unearthed.
The
document – produced by the Cabinet Office in 2016 but never
published – confirms government and industry players were privately
downbeat about the prospects for a UK shale boom, even as they talked
up the sector’s potential.
Unearthed first
discovered the
existence of the report in early 2018, but its information request
was rejected because the government claimed it
“could call into question the industry’s viability.”
Following
a hearing in July this year, the information tribunal ordered the
government to release key extracts of the report. The
government failed
to comply with
the order to publish on 25 November, but finally released the report
late on Friday afternoon.
Though
sections of the document have been unredacted, it remains heavily
censored.
Jon
Trickett, shadow minister for the Cabinet Office,
told Unearthed: “This report clearly shows that
the Tories have bent over backwards to serve the interests of big
business, especially the oil and gas industry.
“The
Conservatives have taken money from oil executives, trashed the
rights of communities and enabled fracking companies to threaten
their local environment.
“The
fact they have tried to cover this up by redacting pages of critical
information – like with their talks with the US over selling off
parts of our NHS – further illustrates this Government’s contempt
for the public.”
He
added that a Labour government would ban fracking, expand the Freedom
of Information act, and “introduce tough new transparency rules”.
The
Conservative Party failed to respond to requests for comment.
(For PDF of this report see original article – you should rotate the page, if you use a laptop or other computer)
Ken
Cronin, chief executive of trade group UK Onshore Oil and Gas (UKOOG), said:
“This 2016 report reveals no new information of interest. It is
true that shale gas development in the UK has progressed at a steady
pace, although this is commensurate with the exploratory and highly
regulated nature of the industry.
“Since
this report was [produced], the first hydraulic fracturing since 2011
has taken place, several sites have been constructed and tested
across North Nottinghamshire and multiple planning applications have
been submitted for further exploratory work across Derbyshire and
Lancashire.
“As
with any industry that involves development, our progress has been
slowed by the local planning system. This is not a unique problem to
shale within the energy sector. Onshore wind and solar have met with
comparable delays where applications have been filed.”
The
report’s release comes as the government has placed
a pause on fracking,
though activists fear the moratorium could be lifted by a
Conservative government after the election.
Business
Secretary Andrea Leadsom said the moratorium would remain in effect
until “new compelling evidence is provided” regarding the serious
seismic incidents drilling has triggered in the north of England.
The
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) was unable to
comment due to pre-election ‘purdah’.
‘Pro-shale
narratives’
The
Cabinet Office’s report, which is based on interviews with 28
industry stakeholders, identifies “low public acceptance of shale”
as the primary barrier to the industry’s progress.
This
is described in the report as “public opposition driven by concerns
re: local quality of life and safety, environmental protection,
crowding out of renewables.”
Rather
than address these concerns, however, the officials appeared to
regard them as a communications problem.
The
report notes that the now-defunct Department for Energy and Climate
Change (DECC) was “already undertaking crucial work on
communications to increase public acceptability of shale” such as
the “development of pro-shale national/regional narrative” and
“shale champions.”
Messages
from companies were even fed into the government’s “longer term
national communications efforts”.
This
public opposition, the report claims, led to “a set of more
practical ‘symptom’ barriers” that the Cabinet Office
deliberated on how to lift.
Industry
lobbying
It
said: “Operators highlight that the most significant barriers by
far are the long decision timelines and uncertainty experienced in
local planning system.”
“Current
and future operators stress that they will only bring forward large
sites if current long planning times and perceived uncertainty is
reduced – ie unless this can be resolved, UK shale will not take
off even if geology proven.”
In
response, the report discusses a range of possible measures to smooth
and speed-up the permitting process for would-be frackers, including:
-
improving
“incentives to process application[s] in [the] 16 week statutory
timeframe”. -
possibly
“moving shale from local planning into national planning regime” -
reviewing
“scope for accelerating planned DECC work on developing options
for the settlement of shale long-term liabilities, to prevent this
becoming a potential source of further delays in the local planning
system in the future” -
pressuring
independent regulator the Environment Agency to speed up permitting
process “without increasing risk of judicial review.” -
exploring
ways to make public consultations and the planning process “more
predictable,” including receiving advice on whether they can “time
out” statutory consultees who are late in submitting input and
even “reducing resources [for local authorities] invested to
request additional information from industry.”
Questions
over viability
Unearthed’s discovery of
the report nearly 2 years ago related to government’s internal
projections for the the growth of UK fracking, which turned out to be
far more conservative than the vast number of wells and wealth the
industry had predicted.
There
is much in the Cabinet Office’s report that indicates government
and industry players understood these growth forecasts could well be
overblown, and the long-term viability of UK fracking remained
unproven.
“The
development of the UK shale industry over the next 5-10 years is
subject to great uncertainty – most importantly because the
viability of the UK shale reserves is not yet proven,” the report
states.
It
goes on to reference interviews with operators and industry experts
that “suggest that the industry could close down quickly if early
sites are unsuccessful. Developments in the next 5-10 years are
therefore crucial to establish long-term viability of the industry.”
The
extent of the detail provided in the report is that government
expected 5-10 horizontal wells could by fracking by 2020, “with a
realistic expectation being significantly closer to 5 than 20.”
With
less than a month to go before 2020, we now know that even the
government’s “realistic expectation” was excessively
optimistic. There are currently no fracking sites producing gas in
the UK, and the government has announced that it will not support
future projects.
A
far cry from the 4,000 wells by 2032 forecast in 2014, which still
underpins industry
projections 6 years later.
Here’s the government’s secret fracking report we’ve been fighting nearly 2 years for (wait for the punchline) bit.ly/34JJqdM
(voor de video in dit Twitterbericht, zie origineel)
Redactions
remain
The
revelations scattered through the report, however, should not
distract from the fact that the Cabinet Office’s report remains
heavily redacted.
37
of the 48 pages are fully censored and many of the others contain
significant redactions.
The
‘background’ page is effectively free to read and so to are major
extracts of the executive summary, and the occasional line from the
report’s body.
===========================================
Zie ook:
‘Milieugroepen buitengesloten van klimaattop Madrid‘
‘Het grootste olieveld ter wereld: niet in Saoedi-Arabië maar in de VS >> het Permian-bekken‘
‘Britse banken steunen kolenverbranding met 25 miljard pond‘
‘Klimaattop Madrid: de grote vervuilers hebben veel te veel invloed‘
‘Frans Timmermans (PvdA Europese Commissie) op de valsgroene tour‘
‘Klimaattop Madrid bij voorbaat mislukt‘
‘IETA, lobbygroep van oliemaatschappijen en andere grote vervuilers, manipuleert klimaattoppen‘
‘Shell houdt zich niet aan het klimaatakkoord: 8 bewijzen‘
‘Bas Eickhout (‘GroenLinks’ EU) was vanuit Bonn wel tevreden over het Rutte 3 regeerakkoord……….‘ (dezelfde Eickhout die als grofgraaier in de EU stemde voor het langer toestaan van het kankerverwekkende gif glyfosaat, onderdeel van Roundup…..)
‘Universiteit van Cambridge overstag: 6 miljoen pond voor onderzoek naar oliewinning t.b.v. Shell‘
‘Amazonegebied in brand, Black Rock verdient daar vele miljoenen mee‘
‘PvdA, CDA en VVD willen zich niet bij het klimaatakkoord van Parijs neerleggen!!!!‘
