MOSCOW, May 14 (RIA Novosti) – The UK government’s attempts to “bribe and cajole” rural communities to accept fracking could cost it thousands of Tory votes, former Conservative Energy Secretary Lord Howell of Guildford said.
“Trying to start in Southern England, and in the Home Counties, or in rural and countryside areas anywhere, north or south, is a guarantee of longer delays, higher costs and increased hostility,” Lord Howell wrote in an online article for the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security.
“Every time ministers open their mouths to claim that fracking must start everywhere around Britain, and not just in carefully selected and remote (derelict) areas, they lose thousands of Tory votes,” he added.
Lord Howell said that he backed moves to get the shale gas industry going, but only in desolate parts of the north “where the industrial revolution has left the worst historical scars” and warned against “starting with misleading statements about timing and effect.”
His comments come as UK ministers have backed energy companies’ attempts to get locals to accept the controversial hydraulic fracturing drilling technique. The rural communities are being offered £100,000 ($168,100) for every well that is fracked, and a one percent share of revenues.
Hydraulic fracturing in the UK has faced widespread public opposition from people concerned about the environmental impact of the technique.
Fracking has gained global attention as a method of oil and gas extraction. Its benefits are controversial, since the process involves injecting liquids with carcinogenic chemicals into rock formations. The chemicals stay in the ground and can pollute soil and groundwater, whereas the water used in extraction can later be treated, but its subsequent safety has not been proven.
