Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Granting petroleum licences could really throw us off frack
WITH a flags report and Covid dominating the headlines here you could be forgiven for missing the sheer panic that the Executive could be about to usher in fracking.
The practice of hydraulic fracturing aims to extract gas deep underground by creating cracks in rocks and is known the world over as incredibly damaging to the environment.
It is banned in GB and the Republic of Ireland – but as usual, we’ve not been so lucky here.
You see the Executive has two petroleum licences on the table.
Tamboran Resources UK, which has applied for access to shale-filled Fermanagh, says clearly on its website the endgame is fracking for gas.
EHA Exploration, meanwhile, has its sights on Tyrone, Armagh, Lisburn and Belfast and says it wants to find oil and gas by “conventional means”.
The concerns that either will be approved as the world faces a climate emergency are very real.
You see, Minister Edwin Poots has just approved a marine licence for a huge gas storage project under Larne Lough – even though it will create a deadzone in the sea.
STRATEGY
Then we have the gas pipes still going into the west and an incoming Energy Strategy, which many fear could see Northern Ireland tied into yet more fossil fuel burning for decades ahead.
Yes, Sinn Fein introduced a Bill against the incredibly damaging practice last week and the move is to be welcomed even if there’s little chance it will make law before the end of this Assembly.
But with major differences between the language used in their Bill and a ban introduced in the Republic of Ireland back in 2017, I totally understand why environmental campaigners are so afraid.
The party has said it is opposed to all forms of fracking anywhere on the island of Ireland.
Yet the wording in the ban south of the border is very different to what Sinn Fein is calling for here.
And I think Hollywood heartthrob and all-round good guy Mark Ruffalo and Friends of the Earth were both right to call Mary Lou Mcdonald and Michelle O’neill out on it.
I asked Sinn Fein why their Bill only wants to ban fracking “in shale or strata encased in shale” when the policy in the south has banned fracking in all “rock below the surface”.
Shale is fine-grained rock that forms when silt or clay mud compact on top of each other and differs from sandstone and coal beds which according to the US Geological Survey can also be fracked.
Anti-fracking groups say the difference leaves the door open to hydraulic fracturing for gas under bodies of water and from sandstone, which is abundant across Northern Ireland according to GSNI maps.
Shale on the other hand is only found in Fermanagh according to the Geological Survey.
Ruffalo accused the Sinn Fein president and her deputy of “[using] their #frackingban as election window dressing”.
Friends of the Earth also branded Sinn Fein’s Bill “meaningless” if they fail to stop the licences, which would open the door for gas and oil exploration in the middle of a climate crisis, being passed by the Executive. “Time is slipping and this Bill has no real chance of becoming law before the Assembly elections in May whereas DUP Minister Gordon Lyons has pledged to bring a policy that could favour petroleum licensing to the Executive before Christmas,” said James Orr, FOENI director. Oisin Coghlan, director of Friends of the Earth in the Republic, added: “Their General Election manifesto last year promised, ‘A total ban on fracking across the island of Ireland, including exploratory drilling’. “They need to follow through now by ensuring that the Stormont Executive does not adopt any policy that facilitates exploration licences before the Assembly gets the chance to approve their new fracking Bill.”
Environmental campaigner and Avengers star Ruffalo thanked both groups “for speaking truth”. Fermanagh woman and antifracking campaigner Dianne Little fears Mr Lyons’ Energy Strategy will see us “locked into fossil fuels with blue hydrogen – 20% worse than gas itself ”.
SCIENCE
“The Department for Economy is not fit for purpose on this – they have a statutory duty to promote gas,” she added.
She has also accused them of “ignoring all the real science on climate, health and human rights”.
Meanwhile, I revealed earlier this week that DFE is refusing to release the £66,000 report it has drawn up on fracking and petroleum licensing in Northern Ireland because they “believe release of this information at this stage may cause undue concern or mislead those who may seek to prejudge the department’s consideration of future policy options”.
The absence of information is where conspiracy theories are born so I get why people fear Stormont might just be about to sell them out to the highest fossil fuel bidder.
It wouldn’t be the first time they’ve let us all down.
Maybe I’m being too harsh and Sinn Fein will stop the petroleum licences from being passed by the Northern Ireland Executive.
As for the DUP, they haven’t responded to a question on whether they support fracking or not.