“The government is ignoring evidence of the risks and the wishes of local communities, by weakening regulation and opening up more of the country to fracking,” Rose Dickinson of Friends of the Earth told the BBC.

“Spreading the fracking threat to new areas will only increase opposition to it. Despite having had licences for years, the industry still hasn’t been able to persuade anyone to give fracking the go-ahead.”

Mr Lambert acknowledges the outlook for fracking in the UK is far from certain.

“Describing shale production within the UK as unproblematic would be misguided,” he says.

Read the full story here…….

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Interesting article from: Paul Mobbs – 21st December 2015 with a lot of links leading to articles revealing the full extent of the Governments attempts to bury bad news including fracking and changes to fracking regulations!

“The UK’s insistence on opening up the UK to fracking is symptomatic of a deeper malaise, writes Paul Mobbs. Of course we need a change of government, but more than that, we need a deeper, enduring change of the nation’s governance if we are ever to effect the transition to sustainable policies on energy and environment. It’s time for the UK to become truly democratic.”

Read the full article here…….

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The government will cut feed in tariffs to small-scale by 64% – not the 87% originally mooted – after a backlash to the proposals.

This follows hot on the heels of the Paris climate change talks, which finished only a few days ago. At the talks the UK government has signed up to a treaty with the goal of “well below” 2 degrees and an aim of pursuing 1.5 degrees.

Full story here…….

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By Ruth Hayhurst (Drill or drop) on December 17, 2015 •

The Oil and Gas Authority has formally offered all 159 licences announced in August.

27 licences in the first tranche of the 14th licensing round and 132 in the second tranche have been confirmed. 47 companies have been offered licences.

57 licences have no conditions over activities in the licence area. 75 have some conditions which prohibit activites at or near the surface in part of the licence area.

The successful companies nclude Cuadrilla, Third Energy, INEOS,  Egdon, Hutton, IGas, and South Western. We’ll be posting more details on who has got what soon.

There is more information on the OGA website here…….

There is an interactive map here….

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Labour and Lib Dem accuse government of sneaking plans through ‘back door’ after giving no time for Commons debate

MPs have voted to allow fracking under Britain’s national parks, drawing accusations that the government has sneaked the measure through parliament without a proper debate.

Ministers used a statutory instrument – a form of secondary legislation – to push through the new rules, which means legislation can pass into law without a debate in the House of Commons. MPs voted in favour by 298 to 261.

Read the full story in the Guardian here…….

Full list of MP votes here……..

Lancashire MPs voted (only 4 voted against, shame on the rest) :-

Borough                                                   MP                                 Party                        Voted

Blackburn BC                                             Kate Hollern                  Labour                      Abstained
Blackpool North and Cleveleys BC             Paul Maynard               Conservative             FOR
Blackpool South BC                                   Gordon Marsden           Labour                      Against
Burnley BC                                                Julie Cooper                  Labour                      Abstained
Chorley CC                                                Lindsay Hoyle               Labour                      Abstained
Fylde CC                                                    Mark Menzies               Conservative             FOR
Hyndburn BC                                             Graham Jones              Labour                       Against
Lancaster and Fleetwood CC                    Catherine Smith           Labour                       Against
Morecambe and Lunesdale CC                  David Morris                 Conservative             FOR
Pendle BC                                                  Andrew Stephenson    Conservative             FOR
Preston BC                                                Mark Hendrick               Lab/Cooperative       Against
Ribble Valley CC                                        Nigel Evans                  Conservative             FOR
Rossendale and Darwen BC                      Jake Berry                    Conservative             FOR
South Ribble CC                                        Seema Kennedy           Conservative             FOR
Wyre and Preston North CC                      Ben Wallace                 Conservative             FOR

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Lancashire County Council versus Downing Street doesn’t seem like a fair fight.

So Cuadrilla’s appeal against Lancashire County Council’s decision will not be decided by a planning inspector, but by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Greg Clark.

No prizes for guessing which side he’ll come down on, say environmentalists.

Read the full story from the BBC News Channel here…….

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BREAKING NEWS!!! Secretary of State to call in fracking decision in Lancashire. Planning Inspector will produce a report but the decision will be made at Westminster. The reason for this direction is because the drilling appeals (3134385 and 3134386) involve proposals for exploring and developing shale gas which amount to proposals for development of major importance having more than local significance and proposals which raise important or novel issues of development control, and/or legal difficulties. More detail later.

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FFL have been crowdfunding to cover the cost of a judicial review to overturn Lancashire County Council’s decision to allow Cuadrilla to install seismic monitors in 91 fields surrounding Roseacre Wood and fight Cuadrilla’s appeal against the refusals relating to Roseacre and Preston New Road.

We believe that the Roseacre seismic monitoring decision is seriously flawed and can be challenged, a preliminary hearing was held in October at which the judge confirmed that there are grounds for a judicial review.

A date has yet to be confirmed for this hearing which will take place in London. Full details here…..

The decisions for the main drilling sites and seismic monitoring around Preston New Road were refused  and Cuadrilla have lodged an appeal which will be considered at a public enquiry in February a preliminary hearing was held in Blackpool on the 19th November. More details here….

If there is to be no fracking, why do we need seismic monitoring?

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