Don't Frack our future

[Keith Millea]

What a Gawd awful story that is Peter.It just makes me want to go kick some "Mother Earth" lover in the groin.Fucking terrorists......Well,wait there's more to the story.Here's the lovely meat packing plant that was torched.This deadly terrorist cell actually targeted a horse meat plant.:nono:That's got to be worth a good 25 years in the hole.Yeah,they fried some gas guzzling SUV's also.To the gallows...and with the long rope!!!:moon:

Incident Summary:

07/21/1997: Five members of the Animal and Earth Liberation Fronts (ALF and ELF), Jacob Ferguson, Kevin Tubbs, Jonathan Paul, Jennifer Kolar, and Joseph Dibee, set fire to the Cavel West horse meat packing plant and slaughterhouse in Redmond, Oregon in the United States. The perpetrators drilled holes behind refrigeration units at the plant, poured ignitable liquid into the drilled holes, stuffed rags into the holes and placed buckets under the rags. Additionally, three separate incendiary devices, made of a mixture of soap, gasoline and diesel, and then blended into a gel, were placed in and around the buildings of the plant. One of the incendiaries ignited prematurely, causing the group to abandon the rest of the plan. The remaining two incendiaries failed to ignite due to malfunction. There were no casualties in the incident, but the fire caused over $1,000,000 in damage, destroying the facility and leaving it out of operation. A few days after the fire, a communiqué was put out by the Animal Liberation Front, claiming responsibility for the arson.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Arrests of non-violent protestors in the UK:

Anti-fracking activists arrested at West Sussex drilling site

Police remove 14 protesters blockading Balcombe site where energy company Cuadrilla is looking for shale oil


Robert Booth
The Guardian, Friday 26 July 2013 16.50 BST

Balcombe fracking protest
Police officers try to break a human chain formed by anti-fracking protesters at Balcombe. Photograph: Tony Kershaw/Rex Features

Sussex police have made 14 arrests at an oil drilling site near the village of Balcombe after local people and anti-fracking activists attempted to block the delivery of machinery for a second day using a human chain and tree trunks.

Activists said police removed people who had blockaded the gates to the rural West Sussex site where the energy company Cuadrilla, headed by the former BP chief Lord Browne, intends to start test drilling for oil next week.

Sussex police said five people were arrested for causing danger to road users, and nine under trade union law for attempting to stop drivers and other workers from accessing the site. Police said the arrests were peaceful, but activists said there were struggles.

On Thursday the protesters, who had gathered by the gate to the drilling site on London Road, were warned by police that they would be committing an offence if they blocked trucks from entering.
Police at Balcombe protest Police protect a lorry delivering drilling equipment to the Balcombe fracking site. Photograph: Lee Thomas/Demotix/Corbis

The alliance of environmentalists and villagers succeeded in turning away at least one truck carrying parts for the drilling operation, which Cuadrilla says could result in controversial hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the Sussex shale. Many camped overnight, but on Friday there was a heavier police presence, according to reports from campaigners.

"A human chain was formed in front of the gates and the police have made the first arrests," said Andrew West from the campaign group Frack Off. "People are really shocked it escalated so quickly."

This week the Environment Agency and the Department for Energy granted permits for oil exploration on the site to Cuadrilla, which also operates fracking rigs in Lancashire.

Opponents of the exploratory drilling fear that water sources could be polluted by fracking, rural lanes in the area might be congested with heavy lorries and that there could even be earthquakes from blasting liquid into the rocks to release oil and gas. The operation to break up the protest involved an estimated 75 police officers who marched down the road in formation, according to Lilias Cheyne, a anti-fracking activist who witnessed the arrests.
G4S staff at Balcombe G4S staff guard the entrance to the Balcombe fracking site. Photograph: Lee Thomas/Demotix/Corbis

"They just started taking people out one by one," she said. "Not everyone went voluntarily and there were some struggles. A girl was shouting at one point and seemed to be quite upset and the police seemed to be quite rough. I saw a policeman with his knuckles pressing on the side of a guy's face until he released the man he was holding onto. He was obviously hurting him. Another looked like he was bending someone's little finger back."

About half an hour later a tanker made its way onto the site the first vehicle in over 24 hours since the blockade began on Thursday morning. The main road was reportedly closed to any other traffic, a move which anti-fracking activists said was interfering with their right to protest.

"Sussex police fully supports the right to demonstrate peacefully and within the law and also facilitate the contractors to carry out their business," said Superintendent Steve Whitton. "Our aim is to provide a safe and secure environment for protesters, residents and the contractors, to minimise disruption to the community and to prevent crime and disorder."

Ashley Williams, who witnessed the arrests, said: "This is a totally disproportionate response. The community are standing up for themselves against a company that is trying to poison them. As soon as regular people put their head above the parapet the state jumps in to defend the interests of a wealthy few."

[Jan Klimkowski]

Where do they find these ignorant fools?

Oh yeah, close to Power...

Fracking can take place in 'desolate' north-east England, Tory peer says

Remarks by Lord Howell, former adviser to William Hague and George Osborne's father-in-law, blasted by environmentalists

Damian Carrington
The Guardian, Tuesday 30 July 2013 16.35 BST
Jump to comments (0)

Protesters' placards at the entrance to Cuadrilla's drill site in Balcombe. Over 20 protests have been made since Thursday. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images

Fracking should be carried out in the "desolate" north-east of England, a former Conservative energy adviser has said, prompting criticism and claims the remarks highlighted the party's "problem with the north".

Lord Howell, who advised William Hague on energy policy until April and is the father-in-law of the chancellor, George Osborne, drew gasps of astonishment in the House of Lords on Tuesday for suggesting that the controversial form of gas production could take place in the north-east without any impact on the surrounding environment.

During Lords questions, he asked: "Would [the minister] accept that it could be a mistake to think of and discuss fracking in terms of the whole of the United Kingdom in one go? I mean there obviously are, in beautiful natural areas, worries about not just the drilling and the fracking, which I think are exaggerated, but about the trucks, and the delivery, and the roads, and the disturbance."

The peer, who lives in southern England, said: "But there are large and uninhabited and desolate areas. Certainly in part of the north-east where there's plenty of room for fracking, well away from anybody's residence where we could conduct without any kind of threat to the rural environment."

Lady Verma, energy minister and a fellow Conservative, replied: "As members are aware, fracking is at its early stages of exploration and there will be areas of landscape that won't be suitable for fracking, as you rightly point out. But we are in its early stages and as the government is determined to ensure that we are not dependent on coal but more on gas, and low-carbon energy sources, I think you make some very important points."

Speaking later, Lord Beecham, a Labour peer who is also a councillor in Newcastle, said: "Neville Chamberlain spoke of pre-war Czechoslovakia as 'a faraway country of which we know nothing'. Lord Howell clearly has a similar view on the north-east and his comments once again highlight the Tories' problem with the north."

Howell, 78, was brought up in London and attended Eton and Cambridge University before going on to become energy secretary under Margaret Thatcher. In November 2012 undercover filming by Greenpeace revealed Howell saying that Osborne was "putting pressure" on David Cameron over "absurd" climate change targets. a government spokesman said Howell had not been a government adviser since April 2013, though no announcement of his stepping down was made at the time.

Osborne has made a series of announcements in recent weeks to encourage shale gas exploration, including tax breaks and new planning rules. The chancellor believes the shale gas revolution seen in the US could, if repeated in the UK, lower gas prices.

But many observers argue this is unlikely and the former BP boss Tony Hayward said on Tuesday: "I treat the more extravagant claims about the coming fracking boom with caution. Certainly shale gas reserves are very large but Britain's geology and denser population will make it harder to benefit from them than it is in the US."

The former Tory environment secretary John Gummer, now Lord Deben, noted that most UK shale gas deposits are in the north-west and south-east. "How very inconvenient of shale gas to choose places where planning permission will be most difficult," he remarked on Twitter.

Environmental campaigners have also fiercely opposed fracking plans and over 20 arrests have been made since Thursday at Balcombe in West Sussex, where the fracking firm Cuadrilla has been attempting to move oil-drilling equipment on to its sites. Previously, Laura Sandys, Conservative MP and part of the ministerial team at the Department of Energy & Climate Change (Decc), highlighted the problem of public opposition shale gas is facing: "Onshore wind is a walk in the park, by comparison."

"Lord Howell's suggestion that fracking should be concentrated in the 'desolate' north-east is jaw-dropping," said Friends of the Earth's energy campaigner Tony Bosworth. "But the government's ill-conceived fracking plans aren't something that can be quietly brushed under the carpet 'up north' as the villages resisting the drillers in the Tory heartlands of England's south show."

Keith Taylor, Green party MEP for the south-east, wrote to Sussex police on Tuesday over what he described as the use of excessive force against protesters in Balcombe. Taylor, who was in Balcombe on Sunday, said he was particularly concerned over the suspected use of the "mandibular angle" technique to force protesters to comply with police demands. This technique, which involves pressing against a pressure point behind the ear, was apparently used on Friday to clear protesters.

"The campaigners in Balcombe are modern day defenders of the land," said Taylor. "The police shouldn't resort to excessive force against peaceful protesters who are taking action to defend their communities from extreme energy."

[Magda Hassan]

Despite Tory contempt for the north I doubt it will remain like that forever. They will claim the resources where ever they may be that makes them $$$s. We have them trying to drill in metropolitan Sydney. No one knew it was even happening until it was in front of their face. The farmers have been dealing with the destruction of their communities and livelihoods for some time but all that was out of sight out of mind for the city folk. Not any more. Nothing is sacred to these environmental vandals.

Where do they find these ignorant fools?

Oh yeah, close to Power...

Fracking can take place in 'desolate' north-east England, Tory peer says

Remarks by Lord Howell, former adviser to William Hague and George Osborne's father-in-law, blasted by environmentalists

Damian Carrington
The Guardian, Tuesday 30 July 2013 16.35 BST
Jump to comments (0)

Protesters' placards at the entrance to Cuadrilla's drill site in Balcombe. Over 20 protests have been made since Thursday. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images

Fracking should be carried out in the "desolate" north-east of England, a former Conservative energy adviser has said, prompting criticism and claims the remarks highlighted the party's "problem with the north".

Lord Howell, who advised William Hague on energy policy until April and is the father-in-law of the chancellor, George Osborne, drew gasps of astonishment in the House of Lords on Tuesday for suggesting that the controversial form of gas production could take place in the north-east without any impact on the surrounding environment.

......

"Lord Howell's suggestion that fracking should be concentrated in the 'desolate' north-east is jaw-dropping," said Friends of the Earth's energy campaigner Tony Bosworth. "But the government's ill-conceived fracking plans aren't something that can be quietly brushed under the carpet 'up north' as the villages resisting the drillers in the Tory heartlands of England's south show."

......

[Magda Hassan]

The coalition may be promoting the controversial practice of fracking for gas because senior figures from that industry sit in the heart of Government, campaigners have warned.
The former BP boss Lord Browne, Centrica chief executive Sam Laidlaw and BG Group director Baroness Hogg have all been accused of the potential for conflicts of interest, as they hold senior advisory roles at a time when the Government is heavily promoting fracking. This involves fracturing tightly packed shale rock with a high-pressure water and chemical mixture to release oil and gas.
Cuadrilla, which is chaired by Lord Browne, is searching for shale gas in Lancashire, but suspended operations there in 2011 after its drilling was found to be the likely cause of tremors in Blackpool.
The Government has signed up to the potential of shale gas after it transformed energy policy in the United States, despite severe criticism from environmentalists.
Last month, George Osborne spoke of "tax and planning changes which will put Britain at the forefront of exploiting shale gas". A recent report by the British Geological Survey found that the UK could have trillions of cubic feet of the gas in the North-west alone, but critics argue that it would be difficult to extract from deep beneath the ground even with modern drilling techniques.
Anti-fracking campaigners and industry insiders are concerned that major energy-sector figures have roles that gives them access to ministers in Whitehall. Among those said to be worried is a top executive at EDF, who believes that the Government's new-found commitment to shale has ended up hurting the French group's negotiations over building a nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset.
There are more than 60 "non-executives" (Neds) who sit across Whitehall departments, largely drawn from Britain's most impressive corporate talent. Their job is to help ministries be run in a more business-like manner, and Lord Browne is the overall lead for this group.
Lord Browne sits within the Cabinet Office. The Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude's constituency includes Balcombe in West Sussex, another area where Cuadrilla is drilling. On his website, Mr Maude acknowledges that fracking "understandably rang alarm bells" after the tremors in Lancashire, but argues that "shale gas could help significantly by contributing both to improving our security and independence and to keeping prices down".
Mr Laidlaw has been the lead non-executive at the Department for Transport. Centrica, which owns British Gas, recently bought a one-quarter stake in Cuadrilla's most promising licence, which is the one in Lancashire.
Baroness Hogg sits in the Treasury, but she is also a non-executive director at BG Group, which has extensive shale gas interests in the US. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by any of these advisers.
Elsie Walker, a campaigner with the anti-fracking group Frack Off, said it is easy to argue that there is a "line blurred between the shale-gas lobby and Government". She added that the Government is "littered" with people who have current or recent ties to the fracking industry.
Ms Walker argued: "It doesn't take a genius or a cynic to realise that those who stand to make a serious amount of money from the success of a particular industry should be nowhere near those who will be making decisions that will influence the future health of that industry."
A Government spokesman said: "All non-executive directors declare their interests to their departments to ensure there is no conflict of interest, and departments will make the necessary arrangements to manage any potential conflicts in the normal way. None of the Neds named sit on the board of the Department of Energy and Climate Change and therefore there is no conflict of interest."
Conflicts of interest?
Lord Browne
The former BP boss is chairman of Cuadrilla, which is exploring for shale gas in Lancashire and West Sussex. He is lead "non-executive" across Government, meaning that he helps recruit other non-executives to Whitehall.
Baroness Hogg
The non-executive for the Treasury sits on the board of BG Group, which has significant shale gas assets in the United States.
Sam Laidlaw
The non-executive to the Transport Department is also chief executive of British Gas owner Centrica, which recently bought a 25 per cent stake in Cuadrilla's most promising shale gas prospect.
Ben Moxham
A former executive at BP when Lord Browne was at the helm, he followed the peer to Riverstone Holdings, which owns 42 per cent of Cuadrilla. Moxham was energy adviser at No 10 but quit in May.
Lord Howell
George Osborne's father-in-law is also president of the British Institute of Economics, whose backers include BP and BG Group.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/pol...07589.html

[Magda Hassan]

Murdoch likes fracking. He usually gets what he wants. It would be nice if the sane had their own newpaper to promote their vision for the world.

Checking five claims in The Sun's vision' of Britain's energy sector

• 31 Jul 2013, 15:30
  
• Mat Hope
  

Credit: The Sun

The Sun has a vision of Britain - and it wants to share it with you. The paper today set out where it stands "on the issues vital to us, to you our readers and to Britain" - including energy. Its manifesto contains a number of claims about the country's energy sector, but is it a vision we recognise?
1:"Just when Britain is relying more and more on technology, we're facing an energy crisis."
We assume the first part of the claim is referring to the fact that more people are plugging in smartphones, TVs and computers than ever before. But, perhaps counterintuitively, domestic electricity consumption has actually fallen slightly. And when temperature differences each year are taken into account, so has overall energy consumption.
The government aims to reduce energy use further through policies like the Green Deal and Energy Company Obligation. The policies are designed to help households make improvements such as installing loft insulation and replacing inefficient boilers - although the Green Deal has been criticised for its slow start.
It's also debatable whether or not Britain really is facing an energy crisis.
Energy regulator Ofgem released a report earlier this year raising concerns that the UK's power generation capacity was getting unsustainably low. But the chances of blackouts are still pretty small according to National Grid, which is charged with ensuring the lights don't go out.
What's more, the government's proposed electricity market reforms aim to bring in £110 billion of investment in the energy sector over the next decade. So while the UK's generation capacity may face a squeeze in the short term, we probably don't have to start stockpiling candles just yet.
2: "It is incredible that viable power stations are being closed to fit in with EU directives on pollution, forcing us to rely more and more on imports."
It's true that Britain imports a lot of energy: 43 per cent of the UK's energy supply was imported in 2012. And UK coal imports rose by almost 40 per cent in 2012 as cheap US coal pushed out more expensive gas imports. But is it right to say that closing power plants is to blame?
While the European Union's Large Combustion Plant Directive means coal plants have to improve their nitrogen oxide and sulphur dioxide emissions or shut down, even if the plants were kept open they'd still probably be fuelled by imports.
The US currently has a surplus of coal flooding the European market due to its shale gas revolution, with cheap imports blamed for the recent closure of some British mines. The UK also imports a lot of gas, with 47 per cent of the UK's gas supply coming through pipelines connected to Europe or transported as liquefied natural gas in 2012.
So like it or not, imports - whether of coal or gas - are going to fuel Britain for many years to come.
3: "Meanwhile Government 'green' policies have caused fuel bills to soar."
Household energy bills are rising. Ofgem says the average dual fuel bill was £1,420 in July this year - about £100 more than a year ago. But while green policies form part of energy bills, other factors are also at play.
The level of future energy bills will largely depend on what happens to the wholesale price of gas. While energy companies expect them to stay stable, the government's projections suggest they will continue to rise. So aside from reducing carbon emissions, an important justification of the government's plans to decarbonise the energy system is the need to insulate Britain from the impacts of the volatile gas market.
Another key factor in what will happen to bills is whether energy efficiency policies pay off.
The government says measures designed to increase uptake of renewable power, nuclear and energy efficiency will add £286 to consumer energy bills by 2020. But its analysis also concludes that energy efficiency policies will help bring bills down again by an average £452 per household.
The government maintains that, overall, its green policies will bring bills down in the long run - with bills expected to be £166 lower in 2020 than they would be without the measures.
4: "But there is hope. Shale gas has launched an energy revolution in the States and could do the same here."
The US is currently enjoying lower energy prices due to a rise in domestically-produced shale gas. But experts aren't convinced the UK can replicate this - at least not in the foreseeable future.
Britain's geology is more complex, it has more stringent regulations, and the public seems unsure about fracking if the current protests at Balcombe are anything to go by.
While the UK might have more shale gas than previously thought - a new estimate by the British Geological Survey suggests there's 1,300 trillion cubic feet in the Bowland shale - not all of this will be extracted. While the US is able to extract around 10 per cent of its shale gas, experts aren't sure the UK will be able to follow suit.
Finally, while shale gas does have some potential to reduce gas imports, we simply don't know if it will be a domestic energy game changer. And we won't find out until more exploration wells are drilled.
5. "We must get on with fracking. It could create huge numbers of jobs and power Britain cheaply for generations."
Shale gas probably will contribute to the UK's energy supply at some point, but a fully fledged UK shale gas industry isn't imminent.
Even in an optimistic scenario for development, shale gas is unlikely to contribute to the UK's energy sector until the 2020s, so it's unlikely to have an impact on bills any time soon. Professor Paul Stevenson of Chatham House says it is "misleading and dangerous" to assume that gas prices will go down as a result of shale gas because it ignores the significant barriers to industry development.
Earlier this month, the Chancellor, George Osborne, proposed tax breaks to try and incentivise exploratory drilling. But those plans still have to be approved, and it's too early to tell if they will stimulate a fracking boom.
Visionary
Key to The Sun's assessment is the fact that it's unencumbered by considerations such as the existence of the UK's climate policies, like the Climate Change Act. The Sun calls for the continuation of a fossil fuel economy, but the government has a number of legally binding emissions targets to hit. That's something it won't manage if coal and gas are used to supply the majority of the UK's energy needs in coming years.
So while Britain's energy future may contain some of what The Sun hopes to see, it probably won't be because policymakers wake up one day and realise there's an imminent energy crisis that can only be solved by fracking.
The Sun's vision of the UK's energy sector - while strident - is a little confused.

http://www.carbonbrief.org/blog/2013/07/...rgy-sector

[Magda Hassan]

Obama likes fracking and nuclear energy.

Obama admin may have interfered with fracking studies

2:22 PM 07/29/2013






Two sources within the Environmental Protection Agency have told government watchdog groups that the Obama administration interfered with investigations of hydraulic fracturing during the 2012 presidential campaign.
The American Traditional Institute (ATI) and the Free Market Environmental Law Clinic (FMELC) filed two Freedom of Information Act requests after receiving tips from two separate career EPA employees who charged that politics drove the EPA's handling of a fracking study in Pennsylvania.
"These two EPA employees appear credible; one we have established is quite reliable and the other was referred to us by a highly-regarded and well-known academic scientist," said Chris Horner, ATI senior fellow and FMELC attorney, who filed the FOIA requests.
One source was close to a field team working near Dimock, Pennsylvania, and alleged that the administration got involved in the fracking studies as President Barack Obama started to tout natural gas drilling as an economic bright spot during the 2012 campaign.
Dimock became the center of controversy after some residents said that nearby drilling operations had contaminated their drinking water. Yet the EPA stated last summer that "there are not levels of contaminants present that would require additional action by the agency."
The Los Angeles Times obtained an internal EPA PowerPoint presentation that showed that officials at the agency's mid-Atlantic office urged further investigation into Dimock even as the EPA was saying the town's drinking water was safe.
"Critics say the decision in July 2012 by EPA headquarters in Washington to curtail its investigation at Dimock over the objection of its on-site staff fits a troubling pattern at a time when the Obama administration has used the sharp increase in natural gas production to rebut claims that it is opposed to fossil fuels," the LA Times reports.
The EPA has also closed two other high-profile investigations into fracking in Parker County, Texas, and Pavillion, Wyoming. However, Horner argues that alleged political interference by the administration does not mean fracking has contaminated drinking water.
"One of the EPA employee's information, while not presenting evidence of any problem with fracking, is however quite striking evidence of political interference with career employees," Horner added. "The other's information proves that the issue drew uniquely high-level political attention."
The second source gave Horner screen shots from former EPA administrator Lisa Jackson's alias email account "Richard Windsor," showing a discussion group called "HQ-Dimock."
"I have for over a year now worked within the system to try and make right the injustice and apparent unethical acts I witnessed," wrote one of the sources, acknowledging he wasn't alone in this. "I took an oath when I became a federal employee that I assume very solemnly. Additionally there is a code of conduct that was once displayed for all to see, that I also believe and ascribe to.""
Horner points out that the Obama administration's embrace of fracking contradicts past testimony from top officials. Alan B. Krueger, assistant secretary for economic policy and chief economist at the Department of Treasury, testified before Congress that the U.S. overproduces oil and natural gas and advocated for cutting tax benefits to the industry to help cut greenhouse-gas emissions.
"As we state in our FOIA requests, this is not evidence of a problem with fracking but evidence of political intervention apparently with electoral needs in mind only," said Horner. "Such decisions, as we also point out, are subject to reversal when the politicians find they have different needs. And the public should know if that's how things are being done at EPA, and in this White House."
The EPA did not respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation's request for comment.
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Tags: Barack Obama, Environmental Protection Agency, Fracking

http://dailycaller.com/2013/07/29/did-th...g-studies/

[Jan Klimkowski]

Conflicts of interest as greedy politicians get the filthy lucre signs flashing in their eyes.

The Volkland Security hounds get ready to smack some flesh and categorise legitimate peaceful protestors as extremists and terrorists.

And now some good old fashioned class warfare.

In the US, I believe much of West Virginia has been fracked.

Here we've had rich politicos banging on about the "desolate" north and now this nonsense:

Fracking will meet resistance from southern nimbys, minister warns

Michael Fallon says: 'We are going to see how thick their rectory walls are, whether they like the flaring at the end of the drive'

Patrick Wintour, political editor
theguardian.com, Sunday 4 August 2013 12.13 BST
Jump to comments (464)

Michael Fallon
The energy minister Michael Fallon, who is a supporter of shale gas exploration. Photograph: David Jones/PA

A warning that fracking may soon lead to fierce resistance from middle-class southern nimbys has been given by the energy minister Michael Fallon.

Fallon, a strong supporter of shale gas extraction, told a private meeting in Westminster: "We are going to see how thick their rectory walls are, whether they like the flaring at the end of the drive."

Fallon, who is MP for Sevenoaks in Kent, said exploratory studies for hydraulic fracturing or fracking were already poised to start in the north of England and were set to spread the length and breadth of southern England.

He said: "The second area being studied is the Weald. It's from Dorset all the way along through Hampshire, Sussex, East Sussex, West Sussex, all the way perhaps a bit into Surrey and even into my county of Kent. It's right there."

Fallon then referred to support for fracking among what he called the "commentariat" newspaper opinion writers.

"The beauty of that please don't write this down is that of course it's underneath the commentariat.

"All these people writing leaders saying: 'Why don't they get on with shale?' we are going to see how thick their rectory walls are, whether they like the flaring at the end of the drive."

Fracking experts have already admitted that the extraction method could result in flares several feet high as leaked gas is burned off rather than being allowed to leak into the atmosphere.

Charles Moore, biographer of Margaret Thatcher, lives in a £1.5m rectory in Etchingham, East Sussex, and has admitted that his support for shale gas extraction may conflict with his personal interests.

Moore wrote last month that shale gas was "a great advance" though it was lucky that much was in the north where there were "not many spoilt rich people to complain".

But he added that there was said to be "lots more under the Sussex Weald where I live" and he faced having to be "true to my beliefs".

Fallon has said in public that fracking will not damage the countryside. "Claims that exploration involves ruining the countryside are nonsense," he said. "A typical shale gas pad is expected to be little larger than a cricket ground."

He said he had visited a conventional drilling site "tucked away in the South Downs national park, which shows how oil and gas operations can work even in the most sensitive environment".

Fallon conceded that there was bound to be some disruption but said this could be overcome with compensation of £100,000 for each exploratory well site.

The concern for the Tories is that they are about to find themselves pitted against their rural base again, as they have been over windfarms, planning laws and the High Speed 2 rail line.

But Fallon has said that in the US, where fracking industry is well advanced, "there is no evidence of fracking causing any groundwater contamination".

Energy companies are only being authorised to search for the possible location of shale gas not to exploit it. But ministers are preparing generous compensation to overcome resistance as they have for windfarms and nuclear power stations.

In his private briefing at Westminster, Fallon stressed that local communities affected by fracking would be rewarded with generous royalties in the form of compensation to improve local facilities.

He said: "If that is between five and 10m quid and there are 20 wells in your area, the local area and the immediate residents will benefit substantially."

Fallon said it was time to "get on" with fracking. "We now know there is probably twice as much shale in the north as we originally thought.

"It looks as if there's much more shale gas here than anybody realised and it looks as if the shale is thicker than the shale in the US where there have been dramatic reductions in people's gas bills and in the cost of energy for business.

"What we don't yet know is whether we can get it out as efficiently and cheaply as they have been able to in the States and that is the purpose of these studies.

"We are sitting on all this shale. We owe it to the next generation to go down there, let these companies go down there and find out whether we can extract it and whether this is a new, large source of cheap energy."

The official estimate is that the UK has 37 trillion cubic metres (1,300tn cubic feet) of shale gas just in the north of England; geologists have yet to quantify reserves in the south creating a potential conflict between conservationists and industrialists inside the Tory party.

Polling for the Sunday Times by YouGov shows quite strong support for fracking so long as it is part of an energy mix.

But the Liberal Democrat president, Tim Farron, put himself at the helm of those in the coalition concerned at the pace with which the government is moving. He said: "I am afraid the government has seen flashing pound signs, and has not considered the long-term threats fracking poses to the countryside.

"I think this is a very short-sighted policy, and we will all be left to live with the consequences. With a windfarm you can actually choose where you put it; that is not the case with fracking.

"This technology can lead to earth tremors and I'm particularly worried that buried nuclear waste in my part of the country could be affected. We should be investing more in renewable fuels.

"I am very sceptical. The green movement were pro-windfarms, and countryside groups were against. With fracking you are already seeing powerful alliances forming between those two groups, so opposition could become very strong."

Don Foster, the Liberal Democrat communities minister, warned that in his Bath constituency there could be a very real danger from fracking since it would take place very close to the water tables that supply water to the City of Bath.

Foster said his LibDem colleague the energy secretary Ed Davey was taking a proportionate, cautious approach: "There is a potential for significant benefit to our energy security but because of environmental concerns we are doing it in a very careful way."

[Jan Klimkowski]

Oh lookee here!

Three quarters of a million of Uncle Sam's finest to gag a 10-year-old and a 7-year-old from ever talking about fracking.

What do we think is going on?

C'mon ladies and gents.

Some worldly wise deep political speculation.

Yes. It's corporate benevolence.

Big Gas just lurves those lil' Pennsylvanian kiddies and wants to share the wealth....

Not.

:unclesam: :flypig:

Children given lifelong ban on talking about fracking

Two Pennsylvanian children will live their lives under a gag order imposed under a $750,000 settlement

Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent
theguardian.com, Monday 5 August 2013 18.04 BST

A drill pipe at a shale gas operation in Pennsylvania. Photograph: Bloomberg via Getty Images

Two young children in Pennsylvania were banned from talking about fracking for the rest of their lives under a gag order imposed under a settlement reached by their parents with a leading oil and gas company.

The sweeping gag order was imposed under a $750,000 settlement between the Hallowich family and Range Resources Ltd, a leading oil and gas driller. It provoked outrage on Monday among environmental campaigners and free speech advocates.

The settlement, reached in 2011 but unsealed only last week, barred the Hallowichs' son and daughter, who were then aged 10 and seven, from ever discussing fracking or the Marcellus Shale, a leading producer in America's shale gas boom.

The Hallowich family had earlier accused oil and gas companies of destroying their 10-acre farm in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania and putting their children's health in danger. Their property was adjacent to major industrial operations: four gas wells, gas compressor stations, and a waste water pound, which the Hallowich family said contaminated their water supply and caused burning eyes, sore throats and headaches.

Gag orders on adults are typical in settlements reached between oil and gas operators and residents in the heart of shale gas boom in Pennsylvania. But the company lawyer's insistence on extending the lifetime gag order to the Hallowichs' children gave even the judge pause, according to the court documents.

The family gag order was a condition of the settlement. The couple told the court they agreed because they wanted to move to a new home away from the gas fields, and to raise their children in a safer environment. "We need to get the children out of there for their health and safety," the children's mother, Stephanie Hallowich, told the court.

She was still troubled by the gag order, however. "My concern is that they're minors. I'm not quite sure I fully understand. We know we're signing for silence for ever but how is this taking away our children's rights being minors now? I mean my daughter is turning seven today, my son is 10."

The children's father, Chris Hallowich, went on to tell the court it might be difficult to ensure the children's absolute silence on fracking given that their ages and that the family lives in the middle of a shale gas boom.

"They're going to be among other children that are children of people within this industry and they're going to be around it every day of their life, that if they in turn say one of the illegal words when they're outside of our guardianship we're going to have difficulty controlling that," he said. "We can tell them, they can not say this, they can not say that, but if on the playground....."

The court transcripts were released in response to an open records request by the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, which first reported on the children's lifetime gag order. The newspaper has been fighting for the release of all documents in the Hallowich settlement.

Campaigners say the secrecy has helped the industry resist more stringent environmental and health controls by burying evidence of water contamination and health problems associated with natural gas operations. The Hallowichs' lawyer, Peter Villari, told the court he had never seen a gag order imposed on children in his 30 years of practicing law, according to the released transcript.

During the proceedings, the attorney representing Range Resources, James Swetz, reaffirmed the company sought the gag order on the children. "I guess our position is it does apply to the whole family. We would certainly enforce it," he told the court.

Williams Gas/Laurel Mountain Midstream and MarkWest Energy were also defendants in the case.

However, once that gag order came to light, two years after the August 2011 proceedings, the company told reporters it did not agree with Swetz's comments. "We don't believe the settlement applies to children," a Range Resources spokesman told the Gazette. He went on to tell the paper that there was no evidence that the Hallowich family was affected by exposure to gas development.

This story was amended on 5 August to include the name of James Swetz, the attorney for Range Resources.

[Tracy Riddle]

I just saw that story today, Jan. I thought I was incapable of being shocked by anything these days, but I was wrong. What are they supposed to say? "Sorry son, but when you were 7 years old we agreed that you could never talk about fracking for the rest of your life. If you do, the company lawyers will come and take you away to the labor camp."

[URL="http://www.alternet.org/drilling-company-bans-young-children-talking-about-fracking-forever?paging=off"]http://www.alternet.org/drilling-company-bans-young-children-talking-about-fracking-forever?paging=off





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