On Monday protesters from Frack Off disrupted a secret meeting organised by the fracking company Cuadrilla. SNR Denton LLP, the hosts of the meeting, were forced to temporarily close their main entrance whilst the protesters chanted anti-fracking slogans to call attention to Cuadrilla’s ongoing attempt to bring fracking to the UK. The meeting was originally meant to be held at the Energy Institute HQ. However after the flurry of anti-fracking activity on 2nd November which saw protesters storming their rig in Lancanshire [1] followed by a massive “frack mob” [2] organised outside a shale gas conference in London, the meeting was hastily moved to the law offices of SNR Denton LLP. Much to Cuadrilla and the shale gas industry’s chagrin, Frack Off found them anyway.
Protesters arrived before the meeting to greet the attendees. Holding their massive Frack Off banner and shouting chants of “Cuadrilla! Mark Miller! Toxic water spiller!”, they caused SNR Denton to temporarily close their side entrance. Undeterred the protestors then moved to another entrance where they continued to chant and caused security to not only close that entrance but to also carefully inspect the badge of every and anyone who entered the building.
The protest comes as it has become apparent that Cuadrilla and the shale gas industry as a whole will continue to ignore their concerns about the damage that fracking causes to the environment and the current lack of government regulation. As Cuadrilla’s own report shows, there were 50 tremours that occurred at their Hesketh Bank site in Lancanshire. However, only 2 of which were picked up by the British Geological Society. [3] The Guardian have also released a report which shows that even the government is confused about what agency is going to monitor fracking which suggests that the practice will be minimally regulated here in UK. [4]
Charlie Smith who attended the protest said that it was concerns over earthquakes and lack of regulation that made him decide to take action. “We now have proof that it causes earthquakes. Cuadrilla says that they can regulate this but who is actually going to hold them accountable?”
There is currently a new Early Day Motion [5] in Parliament to place a moratorium on fracking until an environmental impact assessment has been completed. While this is a good start, Frack Off would like to see the entire practice banned and for the government to instead invest in renewable technology like wind turbines and to re-invest in solar energy.
[4] http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/sep/23/fracking-industry-minimal-regulation-uk
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I like this water tax idea, but has anyone come up with a way to only tax the water used for fnkraicg?I also like the fact that a severance tax (and higher bonding requirements) would price some smaller drillers out of the market. With resource extraction, I think we want this industry to be limited to a handful of major firms, because they’re the ones with the resources to pay for a clean-up if something goes wrong. I don’t want to see a bunch of fly-by-night operations who can’t cover their clean up costs in the event of a disaster.