The Denbighshire Free Press is reporting today that Llangollen could be affected by fracking if the UK Government decides to extend licenses to carry out the controversial process.
For the full story, see:
http://www.denbighshirefreepress.co.uk/news/136196/thousands-of-homes-in-denbighshire-could-be-affected-by-fracking.aspx
There's a lot of nonsense in the Free Press report. For example:
ReplyDelete"Thousands of homes in Denbighshire could be open to fracking..." No they won't. Fracking takes place deep below ground, not in peoples' homes.
Llyr Gruffydd's remarks are wide of the mark too:
“Developing a new carbon intensive source of energy is bad new for climate change."
It is true that methane is a hydrocarbon, but that definition spans a huge range from Methane which is mostly hydrogen with a bit of carbon, to coal which is almost pure carbon. That's why coal is a black solid and methane is a colourless gas. So burning methane releases less CO2 than burning almost anything else. It would make a lot of sense to treat this limited resource as a temporary means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and to impose a heavy tax on the companies that develop and sell it, then invest ALL the tax money in long-term renewable resources. It probably won't happen though because we, the public, will demand lower energy prices and politicians will pander to our short-term needs, and when the gas runs out we'llbe back where we started.
"It also means wasting millions of gallons of water in a process that has the potential to contaminate underground water supplies, cause gas leakages and minor earthquakes."
Water is used in many industrial processes, most of it is cleaned up and re-used because dumping it is not allowed. In fracking the water and chemicals are pumped down the well to crack the rock, then pumped out to let the gas flow. It is true that there have been some leaks of contaminated water and gas in the US, but the US has much less stringent regulation of many industries and is prepared to take risks to make a quick buck. Our health and safety record is much better. My Gruffydd would do better to campaign for the tightest possible safety controls and higher taxes on energy companies profits and ring fencing that tax so all of it is invested in alternative energy research.