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« What New Scientist wouldn't print | Main | Still going slow »
Monday
May232016

Yorkshire goes unconventional

Well this was enough to lull me from my blogging stupor:

Fracking given green light in North Yorkshire

Protesters booed and jeered as councillors gave the go-ahead for the first fracking operation in the UK for five years.

The problem the greens are going to have now is that when the sky doesn't actually fall in, they are going to be left looking pretty dishonest. 

Again.

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Reader Comments (487)

The Sky defiantly won't be falling in all the time it's full of Hollywood A listers buzzing around in their private jets.


http://brobible.com/entertainment/article/leonardo-dicaprio-traveling-8000-private-jet-eco-award/

May 23, 2016 at 8:23 PM | Unregistered CommenterJamspid

Years ago, late eighties or early nineties, I heard an anti GM crops type on Radio 4 lamenting that GM rape was now growing wild on the central reservations of the country's dual carriageways. His opinion was that nothing could be done about it and we were totally doomed. The interviewer didn't feel the need to press him on what dire consequences would result from the presence of these escaped plants by our roads but it was going to be pretty bad. These people never have to admit to their former silly predictions because the media just forgets about them and moves onto something else.

May 23, 2016 at 8:31 PM | Unregistered CommenterStonyground

World class shale deposits have been available to the UK for a long time, they have been known about for sure since Cuadrilla was able to do test drilling in the North West. The key fact though is that they have been available to David Cameron for 6 years. When this country was trying to recover from the 2007 - 2008 recession, shale gas (and there is oil) were available to help kick start our industry; Cameron did nothing. Now Cameron has finally allowed the genie out of the bottle we shall see what he has done to us.

May 23, 2016 at 8:48 PM | Registered CommenterDung

To repeat my response to Philip Bratby in Unthreaded: great news! I was getting exasperated at the BBC’s blatant lies-by-omission, with the constant claim that this will be “the first fracking in the UK”, cunningly forgetting to say: “since 2012.” Another conveniently forgotten fact is that the site at Kirby Misperton has already been fracked, and has been producing “fracked” gas for some 30 years, another fact the BBC were not particularly bothered about reporting – though, perversely, they thought it would be good to broadcast a tearful resident who could remember the last time it was done, with all the noise, and the traffic, and … and… *sob*.

Interestingly, what is also never mentioned is that Kirby Misperton is where Flamingoland is situated. Well, that will never be a source of noise or traffic, will it?

May 23, 2016 at 8:52 PM | Registered CommenterRadical Rodent

Europe is going to need access to our gas once we have left. Timing is everything.

May 23, 2016 at 9:57 PM | Unregistered Commenterssat

Good point by RR. Apparently there's a 50 foot Ferris wheel at Flamingo land. Don't hear too many bleats about that do we? Nothing better than seeing sobbing Greens defeated. More please.

May 23, 2016 at 10:05 PM | Unregistered CommenterCheshireRed

Likely Yorkshire said yes just because Lancashire said no.

May 23, 2016 at 10:17 PM | Unregistered CommenterJamesG

Don't you just love the fact that Greenpi$$ say "it will industrialise the beautiful Yorkshire countryside". Not as much as those wind turbines visible for miles and miles. And the concerns about noise and traffic and bees and bats, as if wind turbines don't create horrendous noise issues and lotsof traffic and kill thousands of bats and birds. Who said the Greenblob are hypocrites?

"Donna Hume, a representative of Friends of the Earth, told Sky News that North Yorkshire County Council had failed to listen to its constituents." She obviously doesn't realise that planning decisions are not based on a referendum, otherwise very few wind turbines would have been permitted. If the planning committee had voted to refuse the application against the advice of the planning officers, the LPA would have been liable for costs after an appeal (as will likely happen in Lancashire following Cuadrilla's appeal).

May 23, 2016 at 10:19 PM | Registered CommenterPhillip Bratby

Also to repeat my response to Philip Bratby on unthreaded - "expect the site to be surrounded and infested by greenpiss and the rest of the green blob activist scum, before they manage to get a drill into the ground."

RR;
The natural habitat of flamingos is highly alkaline soda lakes - so is Flamingo land providing their inmates with a natural environment and polluting the local water-table; or are they keeping them in inappropriate environment?

May 23, 2016 at 10:23 PM | Registered CommenterSalopian

Good news !

Good too to hear "Protesters booed and jeered" - or did they mean that it was the protesters who were booing and jeering?

Re your "blogging stupor" - how about a piece examining whether Borris, Gove, Nigel et al are actually false flags? They do seem to be very effective in snatching defeat from the jaws of any possible Brexit win...

May 23, 2016 at 10:40 PM | Unregistered Commentergareth

Patience.
There will be tremors in Yorkshire. There always are.
But when they happen they will be blamed on the novel sin of man (fracking). Unscrupulously.

Don't rejoice until the BBC has acknowledged that tremors of less than 4 on the Richter scale are not newsworthy.

May 23, 2016 at 10:41 PM | Registered CommenterM Courtney

Put the greens in the Yorkshire pudding - and cook it in a hot oven.

May 23, 2016 at 10:44 PM | Unregistered Commentertoorightmate

Greenpeace will ensure there's trouble 't drill

May 23, 2016 at 10:55 PM | Unregistered Commentergolf charlie

The problem the greens are going to have now is that when the sky doesn't actually fall in, they are going to be left looking pretty dishonest.

Why should that be a problem for the greens? Einstein's definition of insanity comes to mind - "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results"

May 23, 2016 at 11:19 PM | Unregistered CommenterRoy

The BBC site has pictures of some seriously greenly handbag-clutching.
But put your hands up for North Yorkshire Police:

Immediately after the vote, North Yorkshire Police tweeted a warning to protesters.
It read: "Please be aware, the police will take action against unlawful behaviour linked to the #nyshale protest."

May 24, 2016 at 12:21 AM | Unregistered Commentermichael hart

michael hart:

I expect the NYP 'action' will be some serious monitoring, rather than actually preventing any unlawful behaviour. Happy to put a tenner on it.

May 24, 2016 at 12:55 AM | Registered CommenterSalopian

Wow the BBC report is OK "The first fracking operation in England since a ban was lifted in 2012 has been approved."
For once it's not been written by GreenPeace, although it does of course quote them.

UK population is 70million, but 240 snarling comments from rent-a-mob dominate BBC News Facebook post ..most of from the US.

May 24, 2016 at 4:41 AM | Registered Commenterstewgreen

Bish: 'The problem the greens are going to have now is that when the sky doesn't actually fall in, they are going to be left looking pretty dishonest.' So what's new? The 'Greens' strategy has always been to tell huuuge porkies to fool the hordes of 'useful idiots' they have recruited, that then endlessly parrot their nonsense for them, then the puppetmasters ignore or ridicule anyone who calls them out. This is straight out of the KGB 'disinformation' playbook of the Cold War, but again, nobody calls them on it.

May 24, 2016 at 5:34 AM | Unregistered CommenterBoyfromTottenham

Yorkshire is doomed, simple as that.

For details, please contact Mr. Obama at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500.

May 24, 2016 at 6:19 AM | Unregistered CommenterAyla

Will any returned salty formation waters after fracking be sold to Flaming-O Land to create the ideal saline lake conditions for their inhabitants? That's what I would call a win-win situation. Perhaps we might, if we are very very lucky see a confrontation between Greenpi$$ and WWF.

One can picture a northern powerhouse fuelled by frac-gas. Well sites would each be accompanied by its own salt lake, and northern skies would be rendered pink with migrating flocks of flamingos. I suspect wind turbines are not designed to withstand impacts from kamikaze living representatives of the sun god Ra and would soon be dismantled.

I have a dream.

May 24, 2016 at 6:27 AM | Unregistered CommenterAlan Kendall

Cardinal Hazzabin in full flow this morning. People want wind and solar, they don't want controversial fracking. No explanation as to how their gas-fired central heating will run on intermittent wind and solar.

May 24, 2016 at 6:40 AM | Registered CommenterPhillip Bratby

Your Grace. Maybe you can get off your lazy butt to post about the fire and shutdown at Ivanpah, the world's largest solar subsidy farm.

May 24, 2016 at 7:01 AM | Unregistered Commenterstan stendera

Will residents of North Yorkshire be able to tell from the accents of the demonstrators, how many do not come from North Yorkshire, and mount a protest against the invaders?

Some of Islington's more expensive coffee shops may notice a drop in trade, with half their clientele having temporarily emigrated for cultural regions to North Yorkshire. Has anyone calculated the carbon footprint of this eco-demo-tourism?

Will local landowners require planning permission for all the private helicopters flying celebrities in from around the world of celebrity photo opportunities?

Leicester have just won that football thingy, partially attributed with 97% confidence, to Richard III of York being properly buried. North Yorkshire should now take this as a rallying call to reassert their rights, Graciously Given by God to all Yorkshire men, and prove their superior quality by telling all foreigners, especially those from London, to go away and find their own natural source of wealth.

Due to remoteness and well known language problems, can BBC employees claim this as a Foreign Assignment for expenses purposes?

May 24, 2016 at 8:09 AM | Unregistered Commentergolf charlie

@Stan WUWT has alreadiy covered the Ivanpah fire
Surely US issues are best covered by US blogs ?

May 24, 2016 at 8:12 AM | Registered Commenterstewgreen

Firstly, good to see the Bishop is back, and hope this isn't a one-off (one or two posts a week would be fine, no need for a new post every day. (No pressure).

This is good news for Yorkshire and the north of England. Hopefully this well will be productive and in time the ill-informed masses will see they have been duped by the green blob. Measnwhile, north of the Border, the insanity continues...

SSE £2.6 billion off-shore windfarm in Moray Firth gets green light.

Yet Logannet had to close because it was too far from the 3 million customers in the Central Belt? How much electricity do the 12,000 people in Wick and Thurso need? What will it take for National Grid to put a stop to this madness?

May 24, 2016 at 8:16 AM | Registered Commenterlapogus

Have Greenpeace ever been required to carry out Environmental Risk Assessments prior to any of their demonstrations?

Have they ever been fined for not paying for the full environmental clean-up and decontamination costs when they leave, in the same way they demand everybody else should?

May 24, 2016 at 8:27 AM | Unregistered Commentergolf charlie

8am news BBC led with the Opponents FoE will Sue ..siding with its natural side

@Phil yep Harra was on at 8am saying "Resistance from the public scientists say who SURVEYS suggest favour wind and solar power, NOT nuclear and shale gas.
..What surveys are these ??
Harra's words :

"Ministers are breathing a sigh of relief, that their favoured energy technology has been embraced by a local council after a wait of nearly 5 years.
They say fracking's a major opportunity, not least cos of the potential tax revenues from 159 blocks of land across the UK allocated for onshore drilling,
But there is no guarantee of a shale gas boom. Firms will need to establish that they can prise the gas out of Britain's stubborn rocks for an economic price.
..And they'll face continued resistance from the public*
..who SURVEYS suggest favour wind and solar power NOT nuclear and shale gas.**
Friends of the Earth are pondering a judicial review.......
Other campaigners will fight on ..........and cos the government hasn't shown how this will fit with their policy on climate change*** "
* No they won't ..he means 'some of the public'
** Who a GENERAL ELECTION suggests voted in favour of a gov who support nuclear/shale and pledged to cut onshore windfarms
*** Is anyone suggesting the UK having it's own shale gas will somehow magically increase our CO2 output, when it raises the prospect of Gas (the most CO2 efficient fuel) replacing CO2 inefficient energies like coal, oil and badly performing pseudo renewables ?

May 24, 2016 at 8:38 AM | Registered Commenterstewgreen

To hear Roger Harrabin on Radio 4 this morning you would have thought he had never ever suggested that fracking was a “controversial” process. What a mighty @&%$ the man is.

Later The Friends of the Earth spokesman was apoplectic to the point of incoherence of course. However even FoE seem to have have given up the fight on damage to local environment..... now lamely pointing to one recent study that shows methane emissions have increased in the USA and we have to leave it in the ground anyway. So there.

Don’t you feel tired some mornings?

May 24, 2016 at 8:40 AM | Unregistered CommenterJack Savage

R4Today just ended with a short 2min interview with one of the councillors playing a straight bat
'This doesn't open the floodgates, it's just one decision about one well. One existing well..to restimulate it and get it producing serving its existing power station.
These protesters are talking about hundreds of new wells . No this is just one ..new wells will be decided on their own merit'

May 24, 2016 at 9:05 AM | Registered Commenterstewgreen

As I posted at the Talkshop:

Apparently very few of the over 4,000 objections were genuine or from locals. Most were proforma objections, something typical of Greenpiss and FoE. At wind farm applications Greenpiss and FoE routinely put in proformas in favour of applications.

Here is what happened at a consultation on the Feed-in-Tariff review “In total, DECC received nearly 55,000 written separate responses to the consultation. This included 2,634 unique responses addressing the questions in the consultation and 52,000 as part of e-mail campaigns run by Greenpeace and 10:10”.

The FoE spokesman wheeled out by the BBC this morning was both ignorant and inarticulate; fairly typical of all the objectors I saw on the BBC.

May 24, 2016 at 9:07 AM | Registered CommenterPhillip Bratby

It's the subject of the BBC 5Live phone in at 9am
They're bigging up the controversial' meme

Ian Collen from Ryedale, Derek in Cambridge etc.
- Ah Nick Greely the consultant from No Hot Air is on

May 24, 2016 at 9:10 AM | Registered Commenterstewgreen

The protesters are stunned at the idea that petrol/gas is so much cheaper NOW cos of the US fracking.
They won't talk about it.
And now the guy won't talk about nuclear.
Now he's completed his job by talking all over Nick Greely.

May 24, 2016 at 9:14 AM | Registered Commenterstewgreen

Well, well. Maybe we can now move to the first stage of establishing whether or not we have viable shale gas. Then, if testing suggests the field is viable, still some years away, we may see a feasibility study, planning application and EIA for what it will really take to produce useful volumes of gas. Then hear the screams from the protestors.

May 24, 2016 at 9:46 AM | Unregistered CommenterVernon E

Being "Green" means never having to tell the truth and never having to say "sorry".

May 24, 2016 at 9:58 AM | Unregistered CommenterBitter&Twisted

Harrabin's Prism wheeled out again this morning then.

I wonder if FoE have been talking to Lord Carnwath about Judicial Review - I'm mildly amazed the Phil Shiner's PIL outfit hasn't stuck its nose into the climate arena - maybe the fees aren't high enough yet.

From what I can see this looks like a fairly standard well stimulation job - hardly a fracking project - yet more disinformation from the BBC and their eco-twat chums.

May 24, 2016 at 10:00 AM | Registered Commentertomo

I am happy to be corrected, but from my historical information, "fracking" has been used in the UK waters for donkeys years. The only "new" technology is horizontal drilling, which appears to have been lumped in with hydraulic fracturing techniques!

May 24, 2016 at 10:04 AM | Unregistered CommenterAlan the Brit

Radical Rodent
I watched a report about the demonstrations on TV at the weekend, possibly not on BBC. I couldn't help but have a a chuckle about Flamingo Land when it featured in the report, it must the quietest and least visited theme park in the world if they are worried about noise and traffic from an already drilled well.

May 24, 2016 at 10:17 AM | Unregistered CommenterSandyS

@Alan the Brit

neither really - I'm not sure of the provenance of "anti-fracking" - but it's a contrived campaign by the eco-loons. It'd be interesting to have a root around to map out the prevalence of the term when used in a pejorative context by half-wits (OK... sly and clever propagandists then).

A history of usage ...

A bit of digging to find the first loonery usage of the word? - £10 into the BH tip jar for the winner?

May 24, 2016 at 10:17 AM | Registered Commentertomo

I see in the linked article that they use a nice 'scale' image of the site that would indicate that the fracking is to take place at a depth of a couple of hundred metres.

May 24, 2016 at 11:01 AM | Unregistered CommenterBloke down the pub

BBC 5 Live has run a fracking phone-in this morning. All the usual straw-men where wheeled out by hysterical anti-frackers. Quite appropriate given today is officially 'World Bedwetting Day'.

(I kid you not - http://www.worldbedwettingday.com/ )

May 24, 2016 at 11:07 AM | Unregistered CommenterCheshireRed

@Bloke down the pub

Although the animation you mention is logo'd up as Sky property - I wonder who actually made it ? Deliberately misleading it most certainly is .... (Waybacked for posterity)

@CheshireRed - brilliant! (I won't ask how you knew that)

May 24, 2016 at 11:09 AM | Registered Commentertomo

Are there enough Luxury Hotels in the area to cope with all of Greenpeace's Celebrity protesters?

The local Tourist industry must be celebrating this decision, knowing how much prosperity it will bring.

The Local Council will have to set up special recycling bins for all the Greenpeace propaganda, before it causes more damage to the local environment.

May 24, 2016 at 11:10 AM | Unregistered Commentergolf charlie

Four Fallacies That Fracktivists Use To Scare You - Alex Epstein
...4 pages from Forbes
pity the page is filled with annoying clickbait

May 24, 2016 at 11:40 AM | Registered Commenterstewgreen

From Sense about Science - Webinar
On Tuesday 12th May 2015 our expert panel, (Professor Geoff Maitland, Professor Zoe Shipton, Professor Michael Bradshaw, Professor Quentin Fisher, and Professor Kevin Taylor) answered your questions. - See more

33. "Fracking has been done in the past in this country, so why does so much controversy surround it now?" (James Clarke)

QF: "Although fracking has been widely used in the UK the volumes of fluids and proponents pumped into the ground are far less than have been used on the onshore UK but are similar to what have been used offshore UK and widely onshore USA. However, I think there are two big causes of the current controversy.
- First, the film Gaslands, which is a widely inaccurate narrative of the environmental impacts of fracking has been taken on board by the general public as being factual.
- Secondly, green groups are quite rightly lobbying to cut carbon emissions and have targeted the shale gas industry. Instead of being honest and arguing the case that we should reduce emission they have instead used scaremongering (e.g. water contamination, earthquake risk, water usage etc) to increase protest from the general public in an attempt to reduce gas production."

May 24, 2016 at 11:56 AM | Registered Commenterstewgreen

lapogus

Thanks for that pointer to the Moray Firth offshore wind farm.

A snip at £4.4m/MW installed capacity. Offshore wind farm capital costs have been inflating at 17 % per annum since 2000. There must come a point when they can't make ends meet?

May 24, 2016 at 12:11 PM | Unregistered CommenterCapell

Overhead view here of Flamingo Land V Gas Well.

https://drillordrop.com/2016/05/05/fracking-at-kirby-misperton-flamingo-land-changes-its-mind-and-third-energys-responds/

May 24, 2016 at 12:37 PM | Unregistered CommenterMick J

Ayla. (6.19am)

Have you had a cricket vision?
Will there be many lame ducks in every innings, and is this why you suggest contacting Obama?

May 24, 2016 at 1:12 PM | Unregistered CommenterAlan Kendall

@MickJ's Link
or .... straight to image ..well is in bottom left corner

May 24, 2016 at 1:15 PM | Registered Commenterstewgreen

Radical Rodent

Most noise in that neck of the woods is that from low flying jets ex RAF Leeming

May 24, 2016 at 1:22 PM | Registered Commenterdennisa

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