Don't Frack our future

[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
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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."