Summer is normally considered a fairly quiet period politically, but on the fracking front things are hotting up.
Today Government made the latest in a string of announcements, the most important part of which was to issue a plea for local authorities to process planning applications for fracking more quickly, given the important national need for our energy security and economy to kickstart the fracking industry.
The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government threatens to decide applications himself where they are taking too long.
Seeking a more efficient planning system mustn't be at the expense of the quality of the decisions made. There's no point putting undue pressure on local authorities to hurry decisions about an unconventional technology and fossil fuel resource.
Instead, Government should be promoting a more cautious and careful approach than normal that offers the utmost protection for people and the environment. No one, Government, industry, communities or NGOs want to see the wrong decisions made about where fracking should be allowed.
Today's announcement came against the backdrop of a worrying approach to fracking from Government - only a few weeks ago they dropped a promise to ban fracking in Sites of Special Scientific Interest, and delayed fulfilling a promise to ban it in National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
We're not convinced that the regulations around fracking are fit for purpose, and Government's priority should be getting those in order and ruling out our most important wildlife sites, before rushing ahead with rolling out permission to frack (Government plans to announce new fracking licences this Summer).
What's more, we still haven't seen compelling evidence that fracking is compatible with the UK's carbon budgets (we eagerly await the Committee on Climate Change's report on this by April 2016).
The Committee on Climate Change made it clear that fracking could only be compatible with our near term carbon budgets if other sectors of the economy made cuts in emissions. If the Government is to push ahead with fracking this makes it more important than ever that Government explain how they will guarantee a secure future for the low carbon industry, particularly given closures and cuts for schemes and subsidies in recent weeks.
RSPB is asking Government to:
- rule out fracking in all protected areas, including SSSIs - address a number of other weaknesses in the regulation around fracking- demonstrate that fracking is compatible with our climate change commitments - provide long-term security for the low-carbon sector beyond 2020
Matt Williams, Assistant Warden, RSPB Snape.