Some interesting developments on the Mike Hill front. In this post I will discuss an email received from Hill's wife, saying that I have maligned her husband. I am happy to bring her points to readers' attention.
She raises a number of specific issues, which I will address one at a time.
1.Articles to which you refer do not indicate a job application to Cuadrilla.
The letter in question was reproduced at Guido Fawkes blog. On a close reading I think one could make a case that this was not an "application", but was more by way of an "elevator pitch". I'm not sure anyone is going to get too excited over the distinction though.
2.Mark Miller was not CEO of Cuadrilla in March 2013 as per Guido Fawkes article. Francis Egan took the position of CEO from 9th July 2012. Inferences in Guido article are set in incorrect context.
The distinction is irrelevant. Miller was heading the Bowland Shale operations at that time. That he was not CEO has no bearing on the central question: Did Hill ask Cuadrilla for a job?.
3.Mike Hill is an nominated expert advisor to the Technical Working group for the Best Available Techniques Reference Document for Management of Waste from Extractive Industries co-ordinated by the JRC of the EU Commission. He does not pretend to be an adviser at all. This is libel.
Guido reproduces a tweet from Hill in which he says "I am an engineer...advised the UK Gov, the RS and EU...", and another in which he claimed to have "advised DECC/EU". However, the EU are quite clear that Hill is not an adviser, as the addendum to this article makes clear. They also state that his involvement in the technical working group mentioned was "as a representative of civil society". According to Guido's article, DECC have said that Hill does not advise them either. It's possible that there is some lawyerly distinction being made here between "being an adviser" and "having advised". I think readers will have to make their own minds up here.
4.Mike is cited in the Royal Society report to which he makes reference.
I am cited in reports of the House of Commons. This does not make me a parliamentary adviser, nor would I claim to have advised them.
5. Mike has advised the DECC and is seeking an apology from them. He has had numerous meetings with senior civil servants and ministers and to suggest otherwise is a misrepresentation by others.
This is discussed above.
6. Gemini Control and Automation Ltd. has NEVER made filters. The company makes filter cloths and these have only ever, without exception supplied the pharmaceutical industry.
Happy to have this clarified. I wonder if the filter cloths can be used in unconventional oil and gas extraction operations too.