Bishop Hill The long grass
Jan 29, 2015 Climate: Parliament Energy: gas The Scottish Government has announced a moratorium on new unconventional oil and gas operations, pending a public consultation, a public health impact assessment, and changes to the regulatory regime.
This reeks of the political classes kicking an awkward political football into the long grass, at least until the election is over. It is also of note that the moratorium seems not to cover fracking for geothermal energy.
Remarkably, the UKOOG, the industry body for the onshore oil and gas industry, has welcomed the move. I wonder if the time for emollience has passed. Shipping gas in from overseas rather than producing it locally is foolish in the extreme. The Scottish Government is actively damaging the economy and the environment.
Why not just say so?
Bishop Hill
The Scotman reckons there are now serious question marks over the long-term future of Grangemouth and all because shale has become a political football.
It is hard to escape the conclusion that yesterday’s announcement by Fergus Ewing, the Scottish energy minister, was a simple attempt to trump a Labour position which itself was a misguided piece of political posturing.
Reader Comments (12)
Salmond is the front for 200 businessmen many of whom are plastering the Highlands with windmills. Salmond was trying a finesse, to export wind energy to England at 2x grid price then in low wind periods, import nuclear and fossil power at 1x grid price.
The last thing the Fascists behind the SNP want is cheap and plentiful indigenous fossil power because it takes from them their Scots' Power Oligopoly.
How will Ineos react to this at Grangemouth. Have they not saved the plant because of the benefits of both imported shale gas from the USA and prospecting for local reserves? Yesterday, a celebrated Welsh politician dismissed jobs at any price and equated Faslane to Auschvitz - this normally sane man has been taken captive by this crazy ideology that you can have security, energy and jobs without any environmental cost. Yet, these people still expect to have an increased standard of living?
Better still why don't we announce that Scotland is now independent and save ourselves the angst of trying to keep a united kingdom together and have the continuing undermining of it by nationalists.
politicians have consistently screwed up the UK energy market ever since they privatised the electricity supply. How perverse is that?
I love Salmond because I hate Scotland.
"Remarkably, the UKOOG, the industry body for the onshore oil and gas industry, has welcomed the move."
I'm not surprised. The UK's energy sector and their useless PR drones have been, "beyond petroleum" onwards, terrified by bed-wetters. So nobody wanted to defend oil and gas, conventional or otherwise. They apologise for fossil fuels rather than make the case for them. Even shale gas's evangelist, Grealy, signifies his climate right-on-ness by stating his adherence to the '97 per cent'.
The BBC is a major reason for fracking being a political football. I recall them on the radio holding their noses when Ineos announced its £640 million investment in fracking. The money did not impress the public sector BBC, who spent the whole day saying "... but this will spark an outcry from environmentalists".
Was that the BBC orchestrating environmental protests or what?
It's astonishing how far political opportunists will go in these life-and-death issues. I include both conventional politicians and lobbyists in this.
Reliable energy in Scotland is literally a life or death matter. No ifs or buts.
Yet, they trifle with it as though it was an argument about where the next Cup Final should be played.
Bizarre. Surreal. And, very scary.
To extend johanna's football analogy, this has all the makings of another Scottish own goal. Let the fools get on with attacking their own prospects.
Johanna
You appear to be confusing politicians with people who care about the thousands dying per winter month in energy poverty in UK. In a recent winter month 5000 deaths from cold in energy poverty were recorded. That is 3 times more people dying in UK in a month than die on the UK roads in a year. Did you hear anything from DECC about energy poverty due to the policies that they are deliberately implementing? Any parliamentary questions on the subject? No not a peep. If you are poor and cold do not expect any help from any UK politician.
More BBC propaganda:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-31042809
Note the "Earthquake" simulation. Perhaps they should have gone to Balcombe and stood 150m from the viaduct while one of the Brighton trains went past.
http://frackland.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/image-of-day-comparing-train-to.html
Note also the prompting of the protestors who can't even remember what is supposed to be wrong with fracking. At least their was a sane interview with the executive from Remsol - though they didn't explain how Remsol would benefit
http://frackland.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/spotlight-on-smes-remsol.html
The thought of actually being able to clean up that waste water containing NORM is of course streng verboten among Greens.
SNP= NIMBY . .Reposte to the irony that INEOS was kept alive so we could bring in US fracked gas, but that now with the ban it won't be able to buy cheaper Scot fracked gas
"I take it then that you are quite happy with the SNP being the ultimate Nymby's. We want shale gas as long as it does not come from Scotland. !!" A Scotsman commenter
@BenPile is right we have stood by and let the UK economy commit suicide
- while the GreenBlob runs a huge disinformation campaign using every dirty trick in the book, slyly beginning with throwing up a smear that "industry has a huge disinformation campaign" industry has just sat by trying to appease as if they really want to get off with one of the activist girls at the party. There must be another country where people stand up to green bullies.