End fracking ban to secure power supply

LIZ Truss will end the ban on fracking as part of a plan to make the UK an ‘energy-secure dynamo’, she writes in the Daily Mail today.

The Foreign Secretary said Britain can not be ‘held hostage’ by authoritarian regimes and must end its reliance on foreign imports within a decade.

She pledged to win the support of local communities for fracking by ‘ensuring’ they see the benefits, and said new projects will only go ahead if there is a ‘clear public consensus’ in their favour.

It came as one fracking company in the North of England claimed, in a letter to the Treasury, that it would likely be able to inject shale gas into the energy market by January if it were granted a licence immediately. This morning Ofgem will announce the new price cap to around £3,600 per year from October 1.

Writing in today’s Mail, Miss Truss says: ‘In a world where authoritarian regimes are willing to weaponise energy, we cannot afford to be held hostage... We do not rely on Russian gas, unlike our European allies, but no country is safe from malign efforts to push up energy prices. Energy security starts at home, which is why we must radically boost our domestic supplies.

‘We will end the effective ban on extracting our huge reserves of shale gas by fracking but be led by science, setting out a plan to ensure communities benefit. Fracking will only take place in areas with a clear public consensus behind it.’

Boris Johnson placed a moratorium on fracking in 2019 after widespread opposition from the public, and concerns over earthquakes. The Scottish Government put in place a moratorium on unconventional oil and gas development, which prevents fracking, in January 2015, and confirmed this position again in 2019.

YouGov polling recently found 53 per cent of Britons would support fracking if it meant a reduction in bills for people in the community. Miss Truss also today states her support for nuclear power, citing small modular reactors made by Rolls-Royce, and promises to ‘champion renewables such as wind and tidal’. She said: ‘This is why I believe our great country can become over the next decade an energy-secure dynamo, which could be powering Europe as a net energy secure exporter.’

Her comments came as the Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi held meetings with nuclear and renewable energy producers to discuss how Britain can reduce its reliance on international markets.

Treasury officials have put a menu of options together for the new prime minister, including a recommendation to restart fracking to secure energy security.

The new ‘three winter’ plan aims to bring down energy bills between now and 2025. A Treasury source told the Daily Telegraph: ‘The third winter is about increasing our general energy supply through things like North Sea drilling, more nuclear, more renewable, more wind.’

Fracking involves injecting a mixture of water, sand and chemicals at high pressure into boreholes a mile underground to fracture the rock and release gas or oil.

A Treasury source said: ‘The Chancellor wants to see a proper cost-benefit analysis of fracking, with safety and the environment taken in as considerations.’

‘We can’t afford to be held hostage’