It is election time and fracking remains a current election issue. According the The Ecologist it seems that the Lords may have stymied Labour’s fracking amendments to the Infrastructure Bill. We will find out for sure next week but it is not even clear that coalbed methane is actually covered by the bill.
Jacob Rees-Mogg MP has been saying again in the Somerset Guardian (28th January 15, no link available) that fracking will reduce energy prices and has been challenged in the Somerset Guardian (28th January 15) to come up with some evidence for this statement. Not even Cuadrilla or George Osborne agree with him and the London School of Economics has described this notion as “baseless economics“. It is spooky the way that nothing that Mr Ress-Mogg writes about fracking ever ends up in his archive of news paper articles but every other subject does. Is that called rewriting history?
Tessa Munt MP on the other hand resigned her position in government by taking a principled position on fracking and voting for the Infrastructure Bill amendment calling for a moratorium on fracking in England – a bit like the ones in those other places Scotland and Wales. She can tell you why herself:
No sign of UKIP in recent days but Roger Helmer MEP (author of UKIP’s pro-fracking, anti-renewables, pro-fossil fuels, climate science rejecting energy policy) was spotted in a shot from the documentary Merchants of Doubt (review) which was on in Bath this week and which exposes the manipulation of public opinion by public relations firms on issues such as tobacco and climate change. He was attending a climate change denial conference in the USA with his “old friend” Fred Singer.
Links:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26030204
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2013/mar/04/ukip-energy-climate-policies
Frack Free Chew Valley, Somerset 