FRACKING will be ‘fought against at every level’ by elected Green Party members, following a policy decision passed unanimously at the Party’s annual Autumn Conference.
Unlike in Glasgow, where Lib Dem Party members voted in support of shooting poison into the ground and burning carbon-emitting fuels, the Green Party unanimously voted for an immediate end to all UK fracking, and to stop the practice being carried out at any point in the future.
The Green Party’s policy states: ‘We in the Green Party re-affirms our commitment to renewable energy solutions and to moving away from climate change inducing fossil fuels, and re-affirm our opposition to fracking in the UK and instructs elected Greens to fight against fracking at every level.’
The Green Party Conference – held in Brighton this Autumn – is unique in UK politics in that all the Party’s policies are debated and passed there by a democratic vote by members.
As a result, the Green party’s opposition to fracking, which has already been expressed by the Party’s active part in campaigns against drilling for shale gas in Balcombe and other areas, is now an official policy of the national party.
The motion, drafted by Andrew Cooper of Yorkshire Green Party, also states: ‘Experts from OfGem and Deutsche Bank have said that shale gas exploitation in the UK will have negligible impact on fuel bills. Furthermore leading economist Lord Stern has said that the suggestion that shale gas will reduce the price of gas is “baseless economics.”
‘Water UK - the body that represents water companies - has warned that fracking could lead to contamination of the water supply. We send solidarity to protesters who have been fighting Cuadrilla in Sussex and those protesting against fracking elsewhere’.
By contrast, Lib Dem members have voted to support the practice, meaning the Green Party now stands alone in British politics, but shoulder-to-shoulder with millions of UK residents, in opposing shale gas use.