The Prime Minister is facing protests from Tory MPs and peers over the Government’s ban on fracking, which they say could prevent a future energy crisis.
Lord Frost is reportedly among 30 MPs and peers who have submitted a joint letter to the Prime Minister urging him to ‘reverse this moratorium’ which has prohibited the mining of shale gas since 2019.
According to the Telegraph, other signatories include former culture secretary John Whittingdale and Bob Blackman, the 1922 committee executive secretary.
The letter was reportedly organized by Craig Mackinlay and Steve Baker, chairman and deputy chairman of the Conservative Net Zero Scrutiny Group (NZSG).
According to the newspaper, it argues that shale gas mining would ‘allow us to combat the cost of living crisis, level up, create jobs, opportunity and a renewed sense of community in the north, improve our energy security, reduce our reliance on imported gas, stabilize energy and achieve net zero without increasing the cost of living for already hard-pressed working families.’
It comes after the only company to frack for shale gas in Britain was ordered to permanently plug and abandon its wells near Blackpool last week.
Lord Frost is among 30 MPs and peers who have submitted a joint letter to the Prime Minister urging him to reverse the moratorium which prohibited the mining of shale gas since 2019
Pictured: Last week, energy company Cuadrilla was told by the Government’s Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) to seal two horizontal shale wells drilled near Blackpool (pictured)
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is a process in which liquid is pumped deep underground at high pressure to fracture shale rock and release trapped gas or oil.
Energy company Cuadrilla was told by the Government’s Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) to seal two horizontal shale wells drilled in Lancashire.
The process has been mired in controversy since 2011 after it caused two minor earthquakes in Lancashire, prompting a temporary ban on fracking in the UK.
That was later lifted with controls put in place to prevent tremors. But many fear it can also cause water contamination, noise and traffic pollution.
Fracking at Preston New Road in Lancashire was suspended indefinitely after a record-breaking tremor measuring 2.9 on the Richter scale in August 2019.
A few months later the Government announced a moratorium – a temporary ban – on shale-gas extraction.
Fracking has attracted controversy with reports of gas polluting local water supplies.
It is also fiercely opposed by environmentalists who say it is at odds with Britain’s commitment to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
There has been much disturbance caused in particular to residents living near to the fracking site in Preston New Road, Lancashire, which is run by Cuadrilla.
On Thursday, Cuadrilla and Tory MPs hit out at the ban, claiming domestic shale gas could combat the cost-of-living crisis.
Without a fresh drive to exploit the resources, industry groups warn that UK gas production will fall by three-quarters by 2030, putting the nation’s energy security at risk.
Cuadrilla chief Francis Egan said the UK was ‘spending billions of pounds annually importing gas’ and ’emissions from importing gas are far higher than those from home-produced shale gas’.
Tory MP Craig Mackinlay, chairman of the Conservative Net Zero Scrutiny Group, said it was ‘utter madness’ to abandon the shale wells at the height of the energy crisis.
Tory former minister Steve Baker said: ‘We’re abandoning any chance we had of leveling up, solving the cost-of-living crisis and delivering on… net zero.’
Cuadrilla fracking site is on Preston New Road, Little Plumpton, near Blackpool lies dormant
On Saturday, Lord Frost told the Telegraph that reversing the ban would bring a ‘British energy renaissance’.
He said: ‘If our economy is to boom after Brexit, British industry needs a competitive and reliable source of energy which we hold in our own hands and brings investment into this country. Shale gas production achieves all this and more.
‘If we don’t produce it here, as we have seen, all we do is import gas from elsewhere, and push up overall carbon emissions too.
‘So let’s reverse the moratorium on shale gas and let a British energy renaissance begin.’
Last week, the Prime Minister shot down Jacob Rees-Mogg at a Cabinet meeting for suggesting that fracking for shale gas should be permitted.
The new Brexit Opportunities Minister is understood to have raised it as a way to make the UK more self-sufficient.
A Whitehall source told the Telegraph that fracking had been banned because it presented ‘unpredictable and unmanageable’ risk to local communities.
The source added: ‘ Even if new scientific evidence emerged and we lifted the moratorium tomorrow, it would take approximately 10 years before sufficient quantities of gas could be produced for the market.’
Watchdogs are warning of a new surge in energy bills – possibly another £700 a year – if gas supplies are hit by a Russia invasion of Ukraine.
The regulator, Ofgem, told MPs last week that current forecasts suggest another increase is likely to come into effect before next winter.
The energy crisis has led to fresh calls for the Government to exploit hundreds of oil and gas wells in the North Sea – as well as to revisit the issue of fracking.
There is the equivalent of between ten and 20 billion barrels of oil under the sea, according to Government figures, enough to cover a significant proportion of the UK’s energy needs for two to three decades.
Fracking is controversial due to the potentially cancer-causing chemicals used to extract oil and gas, which could then contaminate local water supplies. Pictured: A protestor in Blackpool
Without a fresh drive to exploit the resources, industry groups warn that UK gas production will fall by three-quarters by 2030, putting the nation’s energy security at risk.
MPs have also called for the moratorium on fracking of shale oil and gas in the north of England and Scotland to be lifted.
The annual bill for a typical household is due to go up from £1,277 to £1,971 from April 1, but some industry analysts are predicting it will go up again to £2,300 from October 1.
In fact, the rise could be substantially higher if Russia invades Ukraine, which would hit gas supplies to Europe and drive up global prices.
Environmentalists, however, have welcomed the decision to keep the ban in place.
Greenpeace UK’s head of climate Kate Blagojevic said the claim that shale gas could help with the energy crisis had been made a decade ago but ‘years later, all this industry has given us are a couple of holes in a muddy field and some minor earthquakes’ .
Downing Street said shale gas was ‘not a short-term fix and it’s still unproven as a resource in the UK’, adding: ‘It would take years…before commercial quantities of shale gas could be produced.’
A for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: ‘The development of domestic energy sources, including fracking, must be safe and cause minimal disruption and damage…
‘We ended support for fracking on the basis of scientific evidence, showing that it is not currently possible to accurately predict the probability and size of tremors associated with fracking. Shale gas remains unproven as a resource in the UK.’
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