The Government have done it again!
The Government have changed the definition of fracking in the infrastructure act to state that if the operator uses less than 10,000 cubic metres of water it does not constitute fracking, we and the government know that the operators will use this to speed up planning applications, try to avoid opposition and reduce the number of stages in the frack to less than 12 to ensure that they stay below that figure.
The Environment Agency have released the results of their recent consultation;
Environmental Standard Rules for the Environmental Permitting Permitting Regulations Regulations Regulations – Consultation Consultation No.11 No.11 No.
In this document they refer to Standard Permit Rules which is another bit of manipulation of the regulations to speed up the EA permits and the industry and politicians still maintain that the UK has the strictest regulatory regime in the world. (This only applies to the EA permits, not planning applications and form part of the planning application).
The following text came with the notification email:
Announcement on Standard Rules
Thank you for responding to our recent public consultation
After rigorous assessment of the risks and careful consideration of all the views expressed, we are introducing “Standard Rules” permits to regulate the following onshore oil and gas industry activities:
• management of waste from the drill and core wells with limited well-testing
• storage and handling of up to 500 tonnes of crude oil
These standard rules permits do not allow high volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking). All applications involving fracking will require full bespoke permits, including site specific risk assessment and public consultation.
Standard Rules permits are common across regulated industry and do maintain high levels of environmental protection. We will check operator compliance with the conditions in standard rules permits and take enforcement action where necessary.
The consultation response is now available here…….
Please contact the Onshore Oil and Gas Team if you have any questions
