Fracking free for all creeps nearer?

The Guardian heads up it’s latest report on Government support for fracking with the headline “UK ministers make it ‘top priority’ to ensure nature laws do not hamper fracking”

A letter obtained by Friends of the Earth, dated 7 July 2015 and signed by Liz Truss, Amber Rudd and Greg Clark to George Osborne indicates that they sought to ensure that wildlife protection did not interfere with fracking projects.  The letter also revealed that ministers are considering designating shale gas wells as “nationally significant infrastructure projects”, which would take planning decisions out of the hands of local authorities, to be made by officials at the Infrastructure Planning Commission instead.

So, this from a government who had promised local communities involvement in planning decisions which would directly affect them.  The same government also promised ‘world class environmental protection’, but that’s as realistic an aspiration as the ‘greenest government ever’?

It does appear that the three ministers admit that introducing such a change is likely to undermine public support for fracking.

If fracking is so safe and ministers have confidence in the reported safeguards then they should have no problem in personally underwriting any issues proven to result from any aspect of the industrialised process?  Readers might recall that we have listed links and associations of ministers and the fracking companies and their financiers.  In April 2015, Spinwatch’s Melissa Jones and Andy Rowell  wrote “Access all areas: Westminster’s (vast) fracking lobby exposed” might cause one to question who government actually work for?

If Lancashire is distant, the remember the application planned for ‘us’ in the Humberhead Levels …. more details available via Frack Free Nottinghamshire  and there is also information on the Frack Off site for Springs Road.

There are also plans for Pocklington, Market Weighton and the Yorkshire Wolds ….