Tuesday
Sep102013
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Balcombe brouhaha
Sep 10, 2013 Energy: gas Yesterday, police issued an order for Balcombe protestors to restrict themselves to a defined area near the Cuadrilla site, so as to minimise disruption to road users. It appears that a few of the ne'erdowells have now been arrested for breach of the order.
Jolly good.
[The Brighton Argus is liveblogging here]
Update on Sep 10, 2013 by
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill
Bizarrely, the parish council has asked Geoffrey Lean - of all people - to chair a meeting of villagers with the Environment Agency.
Reader Comments (28)
Arrest them all. Search their camp for drugs, arrest the users. Check all of their vehicles and confiscate any not insured, taxed or MOT'd. Keep Cuadrilla working with without fear of reprisals.
Environmentalists do seem to have a lot of free time on their hands.
And pelt them with soap. It will be like garlic to a vampire.
Poor wee prajna.
It would be interesting to know exactly how Lean got offered the chair of the village meeting. Meanwhile, the police should continue to operate as John Marshall suggests but with added truncheon. According to the link, only residents will be allowed tickets at two per address.
I am 100% in favour of the right to protest.
But they have had their protest, and got more free PR than an X-Factor winner.
To me a reasonable protest would be holding up signs, even a one-off demo that disrupted work and traffic on one day, with appropriate police notice etc. Even as a worker at the rig, I'd underhand the reasons behind that, as we do when encountering the odd demo around Westminster or wherever. Inconvenient, but hey, that's life in a free society.
Now they are simply blocking the road day after day, and have stated their attempt is to prevent Cuadrilla from working by forcing them past the 28th September date. That is not protest but arrogance and petulance on a grand scale.
Geoffrey 'I-never-read-a-press-release-from-the-Greens-that-I-didn't-like' Lean.
Although he is a green (in his opinons - I don't know if he is actually a member of any Green organisation) Geoffrey Lean did have an article in the Telegraph a few days ago that is rather embarrassing for the Greens.
Have ministers blown their plans to import wind power?
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/author/geoffreylean/
The idea was to blanket large areas of the centre of Ireland with wind farms and to import the electricity they would produce. In that way the British government thought it could meet its targets for renewable energy without having to worry about domestic opposition to wind farms, but, surprise, surprise - it turns out that people living in rural areas of Ireland are not very keen on being surrounded by wind turbines either.
Unfortunately the full text of Lean's article is not available, just the introduction to it on his blog. I wonder why?
A good few months ago G Lean when reporting in the Telegraph that Balcombe was going to stand up to the evil frackers also declared a personal interest in the matter which I don't recall was fully explained. IIRC he made much of how the good folk of Balcombe would stand up against the Frackers. Explains the choice of him for Chair then.
Mick.
Unfortunately the full text of Lean's article is not available, just the introduction to it on his blog. I wonder why?
Sep 10, 2013 at 1:28 PM | Unregistered CommenterRoy
Being a good green, he recycles his garbage from the Earth section to his blog a few days later where once again it is set upon by posters. :)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/windpower/10291432/Irish-Lilliputs-square-up-to-fight-British-wind-giants.html
Mick.
You do have to wonder about the intelligence level of these people if they view fracking as some new, evil, fume-belching, earth-shattering procedure... Perhaps someone ought to explain to them in words of one syllable so that they might understand, that its been in use quite inoffensively in the UK for decades...
sherlock1
As somebody pointed out on here the other day, they didn't see shale gas coming and, boy, are they ever pissed off!While it's true that the eco-morons have only just discovered fracking, they understand full well what it is about.
It is about the source of cheap, reliable energy the discovery of which Ehrlich compared to giving an idiot child a sub-machine gun.
Or if you prefer this from Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute
I think that's fair comment Mike. One of the many interesting things about Freeman Dyson, for me, is that he really rates Amory Lovins in other areas but he's never fallen for this anti-humanistic message on energy - witness his comments about shale on his recent Q&A on Slashdot. Too many of the very bright go this way but Dyson, who is brighter than most, takes the road less travelled. Something not just to be grateful for but to figure out why.
Ah yes, the Lean green bullshit machine...
It would be a pity if the Balcombe protesters had to pack up and leave. What will I do to while away an evening when I can't troll them on Twitter?
The council of a village in mid-Sussex choosing an "environmental journalist" who writes for the Telegraph is not that surprising surely?
These activists are worried about ground water being contaminated. According to the BGS only 35% of water in the supply comes from ground water the rest is from surface water, rivers and reservoirs stocked from surface water.
Just thought I would throw that into the discussion.
John Marshall
John, forgive me if I just throw it out again! Nothing personal.They are not worried about ground water being contaminated. Ground water is only an excuse. Earthquakes are only an excuse. CO2 is only an excuse. Traffic is only an excuse. Noise is only an excuse.
The objective is to stop any and all use of hydrocarbons as a source of energy — see my posting above.
I'm sorry for continually banging this drum but the only way to win this particular battle is to keep repeating that the protesters are a bunch of no-nothing donkeys led by a relatively sophisticated group of activists with an anti-development agenda who will use whatever argument they see as serving their purpose whether there is a grain of truth in it or not — usually the latter!
I'm not sure where Lean comes into this; he lives in Surrey. Perhaps he's scared his neck of the woods will be next.
In the interests of balance, wouldn't it be a hoot if the Balcombe PC could invite Chris Booker - or better yet, Chris Monckton - to co-chair their meeting. That would be worth seeing...
@stuck record
'Geoffrey 'I-never-read-a-press-release-from-the-Greens-that-I-didn't-like' Lean.
He is marginally better than his successor Loopy Louise 'I-never-read-a-press-release-from-the-Greens-that-I-didn't-cut'n'paste-and-publish-as-my-own-work-sometimes-twice-or-more' Gray'
Meanwhile, in a country with a more realistic attitude to energy, etc:
" A new report from IHS Global Insight estimates that fracking added the equivalent of a cool $1,200 to real household disposable income on average in 2012.
Lower costs for raw materials were passed on to consumers via lower home heating and electricity bills and lower prices for other goods and services. Wages also increased from a surge in industrial activity. On present trend, IHS predicts that unconventional oil and gas will contribute more than $2,000 a year by 2015 and $3,500 by 2025."
(http://www.thegwpf.org/fracking-shale-boom-poor/)
Please take time to check the geologist worries about carcinogenic, and neurotoxic chemicals that over time WILL pollute your drinking water; if fracking is permitted. There is even a site for conservatives against fracking. If you look deeper it's easy to find governmental corruption, to find the facts easily look on frack off .org.
jane lacy
This strikes me as being a reasonable assessment of frackoff.Allow me to draw your attention to my postings at 2.02pm and 3.50pm.
The second of these is especially relevant.
Please do not insult our intelligence by telling us that frack-off.org.uk (to give it its correct title) is anything other than an anti-fracking activist site whose output may on occasion happen to approach the true facts of fracking but only by accident.
As I've said above
That phrase "no-nothing" should of course read "know-nothing".
Well, knowbody's perfect!
I hear that fracking is being considered on the unspoilt island paradise of St. Kilda.
Mike Jackson What is your expertise? where are the grounds for your opinions?
jane lacy (Sep 10, 2013 at 7:38 PM):
Not sure if you are aware, but fracking has been underway in this country and around the world for decades. As yet, there have been no reported releases of what you fear, except perhaps by manual fracking, and that has been going on for centuries - indeed, in quite recent history, attempts to close many manual fracking sites caused chaos in the UK for a while.
I am very curious to see how the Environment Agency & Geoffrey Lean work out... to me it looks like a gruesome twosome.
The EA have lurched around about fracking Greenpiece quote Bish! There are pragmatists in there but there is also a lumpen mass of opportunistic mercenary bureaucrats seeking to cultivate fresh fields for them to "regulate" even though they almost completely lack the expertise to do so - but they scent opportunity - and that's important.
A trawl through the board of the EA would I think have people wondering about complicated, conflicted allegiances... never mind a reading list of the morass of interwoven policies the EA have spun in their short existence. They have stated that they'll refuse fracking water in "over-abstracted areas" - but then proceed to give water licences that can't sensibly extract and massively compensate their mates who've got the licences and refuse to disclose how much and for how long they've shelled out public funds for something that isn't happening (tortured language - I know - but that's how it's worked AIUI!)
But then again they don't like coverage outside their control - so they might well keep their necks wound in - yep - interesting.....
Surely Jane Lacy isn't a non-de-plume for the unlamented Entropic Man is it?
Assuming it isn't, it is obvious that she hasn't read any of the previous correspondence where there has been a lot of referenced comments from geologists and drillers. DFTT perhaps?