The Environmental Audit Committee, an influential cross-party committee of MPs, has called for a prohibition on fracking because it believes that it could hamper efforts to tackle climate change as it would only increase the UKs reliance on fossil fuels. Furthermore, the environmental and health impacts of fracking are not fully known.
Committee Chair Joan Walley said, "Ultimately fracking cannot be compatible with our long-term commitments to cut climate-changing emissions unless full-scale carbon capture and storage technology is rolled out rapidly, which currently looks unlikely". Ms Walley added, "There are also huge uncertainties around the impact that fracking could have on water supplies, air quality and public health."
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) disagreed, stating that shale development will work with greenhouse gas emissions targets.
However, the call for a suspension on fracking was, unfortunately, overwhelmingly rejected by MPs during a Commons debate. At the same time, the government agreed to proposals for 13 new conditions that must be met before shale gas extraction can take place. In addition, fracking will be banned in national parks.
Fracking is being debated in the Commons as part of continuing discussions on the Infrastructure Bill which is currently making its way though Parliament as part of the approval process. That Bill contains provisions designed to pave the way for shale development in the UK, although it seems now, following that Commons debate, that the development of shale gas extraction will not be as easy as originally planned.
