Watchdog bans Greenpeace ad attacking fracking claims

A GREENPEACE advertisement that claims fracking ‘won’t cut energy bills’ has been banned.

The environmental group argued that fracking for gas would threaten the climate, the countryside and the water supply, and its advert said: ‘Experts agree – it won’t cut our energy bills.’

But a complaint from pro-fracking Labour peer Lord Lipsey said it was misleading to state that access to gas from shale rocks will not cut prices. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) agreed and has banned Greenpeace from making the claim.

The promise that fracking will provide cheaper gas could persuade consumers sceptical about the technology, in which water and chemicals are blasted underground to release trapped natural gas.

David Cameron has said he was ‘going all out’ for the development of shale gas extraction to increase energy security, cut emissions by replacing coal and boost the economy. In 2013, he, said: ‘If we don’t back this technology, we will miss a massive opportunity to help families with their bills. Fracking has real potential to drive energy bills down.’

But Greenpeace rejects this, and has produced quotes from 22 energy experts to support its case.

However, the ASA says that given the disagreements, Greenpeace was wrong to state as fact that the introduction of fracking in this country would not cut energy bills.

The watchdog pointed to the comments made by Mr Cameron as evidence that there was no consensus on the impact on bills. It said: ‘While we acknowledged that Greenpeace had provided quotes from 22 people, groups or organisations demonstrating support for the view that fracking would not reduce energy prices, we understood there was a significant division of informed opinion.’

Greenpeace dismissed the ruling and questioned the impartiality of the ASA, saying its chairman is former Labour environment secretary Chris Smith, who heads the Shale Task Force, a group funded by fracking firms. It said Lord Lipsey used to be on the ASA council and is on a Lords committee that last year called for fracking to be a national priority.

Louise Hutchins, of Greenpeace, said: ‘An authority led by a fracking advocate has ruled in favour of a pro-fracking Lord merely on the basis of the opinion of an avowedly pro-fracking Prime Minister. This decision is baseless, biased, and frankly bonkers.’