Changing fracking views puts SNP in the firing line

THE SNP has come under further pressure over its policy on fracking after it emerged that one of the party’s candidates had previously spoken out in favour of unconventional oil and gas.

George Kerevan, standing in East Lothian, wrote an article in 2012 highlighting the benefits of the ‘shale gas revolution’ in the United States and said opposition to fracking by environmentalists was “based on a utopian vision”.

However, in r e c e nt campaign literature he described himself as a “Home Rule, jobs not austerity, no fracking, no Trident, a voice for East Lothian” candidate.

The article emerged after the SNP was criticised for issuing green badges with the slogan ‘Frack Off’ written on alongside an SNP symbol.

While Fergus Ewing, the SNP’s energy minister, called a moratorium to fracking in January, he has failed to answer a series of questions over what is precisely covered by the temporary ban.

Ineos, the firm which holds 729 sq miles of fracking exploration licences across central Scotland, is understood to have continued preparatory work for fracking.

Scottish Labour’s Candidate for East Lothian, Fiona O’Donnell, said: “George Kerevan must come clean. Has he changed his mind, or is he someone who will say anything to get elected?”

In a BBC documentary broadcast last night, Mr Ewing said: “Hydraulic fracturing has been carried out in the USA on a very large scale. But the central belt of Scotland is not North Dakota. It is different and we need to think how it will be, how it may be, applied to Scotland.”

Patrick Harvie, co-convenor of the Scottish Greens, criticised the comments.