U.K.’s Labor Party: Would ban fracking

The U.K. opposition Labor Party would ban hydraulic fracturing for shale gas if it wins the next general election, according to its energy spokesman Barry Gardiner.

The Labor Party had previously supported only a moratorium on the process, known as fracking, until the industry met certain environmental safeguards. On Monday, Gardiner altered the policy, saying the need to tackle climate change makes emissions-free renewables a more viable energy option.

Fracking “locks us into an energy infrastructure that is based on fossil fuels long after our country needs to have moved to clean energy,” he said in a speech at Labor’s annual conference in Liverpool.

The policy shift adds more uncertainty to an industry that’s struggled to get up and running despite tax breaks and the easing of planning restrictions since 2010. The U.K. estimated in 2013 that it may have as much as 1,300 trillion cubic feet of gas locked in shale formations in northern England — enough to supply Britain’s needs for 47 years, based on a 10 percent extraction rate.

Third Energy U.K. Gas Ltd. was given the right to frack an existing U.K. natural gas well in May. That would be the first use of the practice since 2011, when Cuadrilla Resources Ltd. unknowingly drilled into an area with a fault, sparking earth tremors and a moratorium.