As part of a strategy to turn the UK into a “energy-secure dynamo,” Liz Truss will lift the prohibition on fracking, she writes in today’s Daily Mail.
According to the Foreign Secretary, Britain cannot be “kept hostage” by autocratic governments and must reduce its dependency on imports within ten years.
She promised to ‘ensure’ that the advantages of fracking are understood by the local community and stated future projects would only go forward if there is a ‘clear public consensus’ in their favour.
In a letter to the Treasury, one fracking business in the North of England said that, if given a licence right away, it would probably be able to pump shale gas into the energy market by January.
Ofgem will declare the new price ceiling to be about £3,600 per year beginning on October 1 this morning.
We cannot afford to be kept prisoner in a world where authoritarian countries are eager to weaponize electricity, Miss Truss wrote in today’s Mail. Unlike our European colleagues, we do not depend on Russian gas, but no nation is exempt from nefarious attempts to drive up energy costs. We must drastically increase our domestic supply because domestic energy security is where it all begins.
We will lift the effective prohibition on fracking to access our vast supplies of shale gas, but only after establishing a strategy based on research that will benefit communities. Fracking will only occur in places where there is a strong public consensus in favour of it.
The statements imply that she would take community outreach far further than past Tory governments did.
2019 saw Boris Johnson impose a fracking ban in response to strong popular resistance and seismic fears.
53 percent of Britons, according to a recent YouGov survey, would approve fracking if it meant lower costs for locals. Additionally, Miss Truss today expressed her support for nuclear energy, citing Rolls-tiny Royce’s modular reactors, and pledged to “promote renewables like wind and tidal.”
“This is why I think our wonderful nation can become over the next ten years an energy-secure dynamo, which may be powering Europe as a net energy secure exporter,” the speaker said in her conclusion.
Her remarks came as British energy producers for nuclear and renewable energy met with the chancellor to talk about ways to lessen the country’s dependency on foreign markets.
To ensure the country’s energy security, Treasury officials have recommended restarting fracking in a list of possibilities for the future prime minister.
Between now and 2025, the new “three winter” strategy seeks to reduce energy costs. The third winter will focus on boosting our overall energy supply via initiatives like North Sea drilling, additional nuclear power, renewable energy sources, and more wind power, a Treasury insider told The Daily Telegraph.
As rising gas costs have a negative impact on family finances, support for fracking has increased. Tory members have expressed their support for further drilling in leadership hustings.
“You cannot operate, you cannot expand, you cannot advance a modern economy without a secure supply of cheap, plentiful, easily accessible energy,” a mining engineer stated during the Manchester hustings.
The biggest energy discovery our nation has ever made is “just under our feet, larger than coal and bigger than the North Sea.”
In order to fracture the rock and release gas or oil, fracking entails pumping a solution of water, sand, and chemicals at high pressure into boreholes a mile below.
According to a Treasury source, “The Chancellor wants to see a genuine cost-benefit study of fracking, taking into account safety and the environment.”
Energy costs are increasing, therefore we need to consider all of our options.
Fracking began in Lancashire in 2010 at two Cuadrilla-operated sites, but in response to tremors, the government issued a seven-year embargo in 2011.
Local residents and organisations like Extinction Rebellion protested when the sites reopened.
A research that indicated that present technology could not estimate the risk of earthquakes was used by the government to justify the announcement of a ban in November 2019.