The Trespass of Shale Gas: How Fracking is Bypassing Public Opinion, Protections and Permission | Real Media - The News You Don't See #fracking #olsx #occupy #water

The Trespass of Shale Gas: How Fracking is Bypassing Public Opinion, Protections and Permission | Real Media - The News You Don't See

• 24 March 2016

Image via @FrackOff – Another US Fracking Company is to pay out millions in compensation 24/03/2016 Full link: http://frack-off.org.uk/social-media-post/thousands-of-cases-of-fracking-related-water-contamination-across-the-u-s/

By Kam Sandhu @KamBass

There has been a distinct lack of debate on fracking, with the government using means to bypass usual protections and permissions to push aggresively ahead with this controversial energy source. Wherever you sit on the debate, the following points highlight that the fracking industry and government is unconcerned with widespread public opposition, and will undermine and override laws to plough ahead with it’s aim to establish shale gas within a decade. Despite this (ab)use of power, local fracking campaigns and communities continue to fight their corner. You can listen to our recent podcast on the successes of FrackFree Lancs here.

You can also view a graphic by environmental scientist Paul Mobbs detailing the conflicts of interests and government connections to the fracking industry.

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Ignoring or bypassing requirements for public consultation

In January 2014, Ministers ‘rushed through’ legislation so that homeowners would no longer need to be individually notified when companies decided to frack under their homes.

It was a Lords committee that ruled the policy had not been “adequately thought through”and was not given the appropriate scrutiny nor consultation.

In fact, the government only had a consultation process of 6 weeks – half the time needed according to the government’s own guidelines for ‘new and contentious’ policies such as fracking.

Following this, planning ministers ‘laid’ the order for the changes on December 20, while MPs were on Christmas holiday, with the policy enacted  a week after their return on 13 January, leaving ‘scant opportunity’ for scrutiny.

Further, ministers failed to tell Parliament the extent of the opposition in the consultation – which resulted in 7 being for, and 155 against. Those against included the National Trust.