Just up the road from me, a company called Dart Energy is developing a site for extraction of coalbed methane, a process that involves horizontal drilling but no fracking. Nevertheless environmentalists, insistent on maintaining high death rates among the elderly, have mounted a vigorous campaign to prevent expansion of operations.
In recent weeks Dart's parent company has gone through a fundraising round, which involved trading in its shares being briefly suspended. Greens of course are trying to spin this as a sign that the company is in financial difficulties. Take these tweets from Richard Dixon of Friends of the Earth, a green NGO best known for its role in bringing about the "crime against humanity" of biofuels:
Troubled Dart Halts Trading
#Dart look for £12m for gas drilling < Scotsman parrot story fed by company, Airth is their only hope and a faint one
However, trading suspensions in these circumstances are actually encouraged by the Australian stock exchange as a means of ensuring that people operate on the basis of information that is as complete as possible. Moreover, according to Dart's website the company has, in addition to Airth, licences in the Solway Firth and East and West Fife. That's just in Scotland. South of the border it has even more licences.
Oh dear, environmentalists not telling the truth again. Who would have thunk it?
