• Cllr Andrew Cooper: Fracking ‘delays the essential and unavoidable transition we must make to a sustainable energy system’
• Molly Scott Cato MEP: ‘It is clear we are more likely to become frack-free, or at very least better protected from the frackers, if we remain part of the EU’
Ahead of the crucial planning decision as to whether to permit fracking to take place at a site in Ryedale, North Yorkshire, the Green Party has urged North Yorkshire County Councillors to recognise the grave environmental concerns raised by campaigners and local residents and block the controversial move by Third Energy.
Commenting on developments from the latest battleground in the fierce fracking fight between environmental campaigners and local residents and the big fossil fuel energy companies, Cllr Andrew Cooper, Green Party Energy Spokesperson, said:
“The Green Party of England and Wales has long campaigned alongside communities in the fight to stop fracking. Not only has fracking been proven to cause earthquakes, pot-hole our landscape and contaminate our ground water but, worst of all, it delays the essential and unavoidable transition we must make to a sustainable energy system based on clean renewables rather than dirty fossil fuels.
“The UK government, which came to power promising to be the ‘greenest government ever’, has made every effort to water down important EU legislation on fracking, while also pursuing deregulation at home, cutting environmental, planning and public health safeguards. It now falls on local authorities to stand up for their community."
Molly Scott Cato, Green MEP for the South-West, said:
“With only a month to go until the referendum, it must be remembered that EU law has the precautionary principle at its heart. This means that safety must be proven rather than proving harm after problems have arisen. The UK government clearly has no such precautionary intensions; it is going all out for shale and led lobbying efforts against EU recommended environmental and public health safeguards [1].
“Other European countries have taken a lead against hazardous fracking. France and the Netherlands have banned it and Scotland has imposed a moratorium. The UK government, on the other hand, continues with its fracking madness. It is clear we are more likely to become frack-free, or at very least better protected from the frackers, if we remain part of the EU."
Notes:
[1] http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/14/uk-defeats-european-bid-fracking-regulations