;)
The levels of disinformation about the shale gas industry has been quite overwhelming, although obviously very much par for the course for environmentalists. It's good therefore to have a corrective in the shape of this paper by Kevin Hollinrake, the MP for Thirsk & Malton.
Hollinrake has been to Pennsylvania to take a look at the shale gas industry on the ground and his approach of just driving around asking people what they thought leads to a powerful rebuttal of the scare stories:
The Negatives
- In Dimock we saw significant but apparently isolated examples of methane migration into water supplies (unlike the UK, most US households have private water supplies which are supplied direct from boreholes)
- Regulation in the early days between 2004 and 2012 was totally inappropriate
- Significant noise, light and traffic impacts to communities, properties and residents close to fracking sites for 6 to 9 months
- There was concern from residents regarding proposed fracking activity close to schools and residential areas, little/no democratic accountability and a lack of planning controls
- Some significant large associated processing plants e.g. ‘ cracker ’ plants and compressor stations
- Despite increases in numbers, there is still a perceived shortage of regulators /monitors
- Regular, numerous, milk-tanker sized lorries on the roads in fracking areas
- Concern regarding unproven but potential associated effects on public health
The Positives
- We did not see a significant, widespread industrialisation of rural areas
- Economic effects and job creation in the local area were positive
- Associated supply chain businesses were thriving
- Most local people estimated that 75/80% of residents supported fracking (initially, there was a similar proportion against)
- In general, house prices had increased in the areas concerned (unless within a few hundred metres or less of well pads)
- Other than Dimock, we had no direct reports of water pollution and absolutely no reported examples of pollution from wastewater or fracking fluid
- Fracking activity on each well pad lasted 6 to 9 months, after that sites were producing gas quietly and without any requirement for re-drilling or re-fracking. We had no reports of any re-fracking on any sites
- Operators are paying for road improvements and repairs
And of course, once you know that there has always been gas in the water at Dimock, that there much less need for tankers in the UK, and that concern over health effects seems mostly to be based on disformation by environmentalists, the balance seems to swing strongly in favour of just getting on with it.
I was also struck by this excerpt, which seems to carry a warning for the denizens of Holyrood and those in Lancashire County Council too.
The final day of our trip starts with an early morning meeting with Councilman Corey O’Connor at his offices in the City Hall, Pittsburgh. Corey was first elected in 2011 (he looks too young to be doing a first term, never mind a second) and inherited an anti-fracking stance from his predecessor. Looking back, he feels that this was a mistake.
“If we could go back now, after watching what has happened, we would have zoned it.” he says, “The jobs would have been tremendous. People had a lot of concerns at the time but it’s really settled now. ” Due to the ban, the head offices and job creation went elsewhere in the state. “Look at Washington (PA),” he continues “a few years ago it only had a drive thru’ and a gas station, now restaurants and hotels have popped up everywhere and Butler County is the fifth fastest growing in the US.
Politicians, eh?