Chief hits at claim fracking will affect whisky

AN energy executive has branded claims that fracking could pollute Scotch whisky “inaccurate and absurd”.

Ken Cronin, chief executive of UK Onshore Oil and Gas, accused academics and experts who warned onshore gas extraction could damage the whisky industry through water, soil and air pollution of being “ill-informed antifracking lobbyists”.

It comes after Stirling University public health expert Professor Andrew Watterson warned of similar concerns from the German beer industry and US regulators.

Whisky expert Charles MacLean said the risk of pollution “would be a seriously worrying development for the whisky industry and Scotland’s economy”, while campaign group 38 Degrees urged policymakers not to “swap a strong and secure whisky industry for the potential hazards of fracking”.

But Mr Cronin, a former corporate lobbyist who now heads up the representative body for the onshore industry, said: “Anyone who has any knowledge of the onshore oil and gas industry will be astonished by inaccurate and absurd claims made about the impact of hydraulic fracturing and shale gas exploration on the whisky industry.

“The whisky industry is primarily sited in areas where there are no shale formations.

“The onshore oil and gas industry is highly regulated from the way it drills its wells to the way it handles chemicals on site and these regulations demand the chemicals used in operations have to be non-hazardous to groundwater.”

Julie Hesketh-Laird, acting chief executive of the Scotch Whisky Association, said the industry would be monitoring fracking developments.