DECC have completed their consultation on the Trespass Law. The government appears to be ignoring the overwhelming opposition of the vast majority of those who made their views known during the consultation. Soon, if hydraulic fracturing goes ahead, it will take place under your land without your permission. But it gets worse… a lot worse. The government tells us that the regulations in the UK mean there will not be a repeat of the damage to health and the environment from fracking that there has been in the United States. Bearing this in mind, you may be surprised to hear that the government is as we speak, making amendments to the Infrastructure Bill (Section 32-37), to allow fracking companies to ‘use deep-level land (land at a depth of 300m) in ANY WAY for the purposes of exploiting petroleum’. They will be able to ‘drill, bore, fracture or otherwise alter deep-level land’. Companies will be able to install infrastructure in deep-level land (and keep, use or remove any such infrastructure) and pass ANY SUBSTANCE through, or put ANY SUBSTANCE into, deep-level land or infrastructure. So a company may move in, frack under your land, take the gas, then, with the government’s permission, leave you with a whole range of hazardous substances under your property or your land. And who is going to dig deep this time, to check what has been left behind and ensure that it does no harm? And on the issue of regulation, whilst the government and fracking industry says we’ll be ok because our regulations are so much better than anywhere else, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) which the government is also trying to push through will see EU and UK environmental regulations reduced to US levels because governments will be powerless against big business. If you’re not happy with the prospect of all this then I suggest you a) bury your head in the sand like many of our politicians or b) protest against this in every way possible.
You can add your voice by signing the following petitions:
The Trespass Law https://secure.greenpeace.org.uk/fracking-backlash-3
Frack Free Chew Valley, Somerset 