Fracking ban delights MSP

The Scottish Government’s ban on fracking has delighted MSP Alex Neil.

And the Airdrie and Shotts politician, pictured right, believes the decision will be welcomed by his constituents.

North Lanarkshire was one of the local authority areas identified as potentially having significant shale oil and gas reserves or coal bed methane.

The Scottish Government previously announced a moratorium while it ran a public consultation and examined evidence over health and public safety.

The consultation was the second largest ever run by the Scottish Government, receiving 60,535 valid responses – of which 99 per cent were opposed to fracking.

Mr Neil said: “People in Airdrie and Shotts, and across Scotland, had deep concerns about the development of fracking.

“The Scottish Government has now undertaken one of the most far reaching investigations into unconventional oil and gas of any government in the world.

“The judgement is now clear – we could not pursue fracking in confidence that it would not undermine public health or our climate change targets.

“And, importantly, the public consent in the communities like Airdrie and Shotts, that would be affected simply is not there.

“I am delighted that the Scottish Government is putting the interests of communities such as Airdrie and Shotts first.”

Friends of the Earth Scotland’s head of campaigns, Mary Church, said: “This is a victory for the environment and for local communities fighting fracking.

“The Scottish Government’s decision will be warmly welcomed across the country and around the world.”

But not everyone appears to be in favour of the Scottish Government’s decision.

GMB Scotland said the decision to ban fracking is “mired in dishonesty and represents an abandonment of the national interest”.

The union claims that the ban comes at a time when the Scottish Government’s own figures show an increasing dependency on gas, with around 1.9 million households using gas as their primary heating fuel – a seven per cent increase over the last decade.

Against a backdrop of dwindling domestic supply from the North Sea and over a quarter of households in Scotland living in fuel poverty, GMB has accused the Scottish Government of ignoring the realities of the country’s energy needs.

Gary Smith, of GMB Scotland, said: “As we have said time and again, the choice facing Scotland is not one of whether to include gas in our energy mix for the foreseeable future, but where the gas will come from?

“The reality is that today’s ban means a future where we will be increasingly dependent on importing fracked shale from the US into Grangemouth – a remarkable hypocrisy – and shipped supplies of LNG from the likes of Qatar and Russia.

“The Scottish Government needs to be honest with the people of Scotland about the realities of our energy future against a backdrop of declining North Sea production and supply. They can’t continue to dodge the difficult questions.

“Quite frankly, the decision isn’t just mired in dishonesty, it’s also an abandonment of the national interest.”