Fracking giant Ineos fights back against the green lobby

ONE of Scotland’s largest companies is to launch a counter-offensive against the country’s green lobby, after accusing senior environmentalists of waging a campaign of scaremongering and hypocrisy against fracking.

Ineos, which owns the Grangemouth industrial site, has become embroiled in a bitter public row with Friends of the Earth Scotland and the Scottish Green Party.

Gary Haywood, CEO of Ineos Shale, hit out against “years of scaremongering” and accused opponents of lacking credible evidence to back up claims that exploiting domestic shale gas reserves is more risky for the environment than realistic alternatives.

Insiders confirmed that a move to publish an article on the news website CommonSpace, in which Mr Haywood claimed critics had been “blinded” by an anti-fossil fuel agenda, signalled a significant change of direction for Ineos.

Until now the firm, which contributes four per cent of Scottish GDP, has made limited public interventions in the debate, preferring to let a moratorium over fracking ahead of a final decision next year run its course.

But an insider confirmed: “We have decided, from now on, to focus on the hypocrisy of the other side.”

Ineos has revealed details of private conversations with Dr Richard Dixon, director of Friends of the Earth Scotland, claiming he had refused to meet with the firm to debate his concerns.

Mr Haywood also attacked Mary Church, the charity’s head of campaigns, saying her claims “starkly exposes a fundamental misunderstanding” of issues surrounding fracking and had produced statements that flew “completely in the face of the facts”.

With the company set to begin shipping US shale gas to Grangemouth in September, Ineos has challenged opponents to set out how exploiting indigenous gas reserves is less environmentally or ethically viable than relying on overseas imports or, alternatively, to explain how society could reduce its reliance on gas.

Mr Haywood said: “The UK currently imports around 50 per cent of its gas from overseas due to the decline in

production of gas from the North Sea.

“This means that every pound the UK spends on imported gas leaves the country and does not return.

“We believe it is now time that Scottish Friends of the Earth and the Greens acknowledge that Scotland needs gas for decades to come, that an indigenous supply from under our feet is better for both the climate and the economy.”

FoE’s Mary Church accused Ineos of taking previous statements of hers out of context.

She said: “If Scotland is to do its fair share of the global effort to stop irreversible climate change we must rapidly phase out the production and use of gas in our energy sector.

“We cannot burn both our offshore resources and our onshore resources without taking up far more than our fair share of the remaining global carbon budget.

“There is simply not enough time and atmospheric space left to develop a new source of fossil fuel if we are serious about climate justice.”