Unbelievable that Rees-Mogg has brought Putin in to the narrative with absolutely no evidence to justify the lifting of the fracking ban, especially given who has come out against it.
Chris Cornelius, founder of Cuadrilla, told The Guardian yesterday, that he does not believe there is any chance of fracking in the UK in the near term.
He said that when Cuadrilla had operated here, it had discovered that the geology of the UK was unsuited to widespread fracking operations. He added that “no sensible investors” would take the risk of embarking on large projects here and “it’s very challenging geology, compared with North America [where fracking is a major industry].”
Mr Cornelius said the resource in the UK is “heavily faulted and compartmentalised”, unlike the gas-bearing shale deposits in the US – which makes it far harder to exploit at any scale.
He also said that Ms Truss’s decision to give the green light to fracking “is not going to have an impact” on the UK’s energy supply, sating: “It makes good soundbites but I can’t see anything happening.”
In the longer term, Mr Cornelius said it was possible there could be a few localised operations but they would be small and could not make a meaningful contribution to the UK’s energy needs.
He added: “This is a sad situation. It is a let-down. There was an opportunity 10 years ago to look at this [fracking] sensibly, but that opportunity has now gone. It was worth looking at then, but it’s not practical now.”
Writing in today’s Guardian, Mr Cornelius and his former colleague, Mark Linder, both called for investment in key technologies which are more likely to produce energy than fracking – including geothermal energy and tidal power.
What is the company Cuadrilla?
Cuadrilla was founded in 2007 and was the first company to use modern hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling technology in the UK on dense shale rocks. It started first at a site in Lancashire in 2011 and carried on until 2018.
However, Cuadrilla quickly ran into problems, including its failure to report damage to an exploratory well. As public awareness of fracking grew, protests started at sites and potential sites.
In 2018, an earthquake of magnitude 1.5 at its site near Blackpool caused fracking to be halted. In February this year, the company said its wells would be “plugged and abandoned”, in accordance with instructions from the regulator.
Mr Cornelius resigned from Cuadrilla in 2014, after Lord Browne, former chief of the oil company BP, took over the chairmanship. Mr Browne left in 2015.
According to its current chief executive, Francis Egan, Cuadrilla has spent “hundreds of millions of pounds” in its efforts to start up a fracking operation. However, the company never produced any gas for sale, The Guardian reports.
Thus this statement on the day the Tories lifted a ban on fracking is completely unsubstantiated and muttered by a man who terrorises live animals for fun and protects sexual abusers.
Jacob Rees-Mogg says opposition to fracking in the UK is being funded by Putin. pic.twitter.com/tR3gtC09hD
— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) September 22, 2022
A final message from Sir David Attenborough
What the Republicans, Tories, The Daily Mail, The Telegraph, Fox News, Murdoch, Putin, oil nations, the establishment, the banks, the super rich, the elite, do not want you to understand: #JustStopOil #ClimateEmergency https://t.co/FBkdC6TFOf pic.twitter.com/Sr517yiJjD
— Matthew Todd ???????? (@MrMatthewTodd) July 5, 2022
God help the UK and all who sail in her.
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