Yearly Archive: 2013

That AMEC SEA report

That AMEC SEA report

[I should point out that when this post was written DECC had confirmed to me that the figures were UK wide. (I asked the question of them because press reports were very confused and the report itself was not 100% clear to me) It has since become apparent that these...

A Panorama Special on the failure of science and maths teaching in our schools?

A Panorama Special on the failure of science and maths teaching in our schools?

Well that’s what it felt like watching tonight’s effort by the BBC to address the government’s abject failure to create any meaningful and coherent energy policy. The government’s chief adviser appears totally unaware that shale gas is methane which can leak from wells causing climate change, and we saw the...

A question of seismicity

A question of seismicity

A lot of drivel is pumped out about seismicity. We are continually being told by Academics like Prof. Mike Stephenson at the BGS that we are foolish to be concerned about seismicity because the tremors are too weak to do any damage. If questioned they tend to qualify the statement...

The FT refutes the IOD job predictions citing new evidence from AMEC

The FT refutes the IOD job predictions citing new evidence from AMEC

A while back we published a critique of the Institute of Directors predictions that fracking would result in 74,000 jobs. https://www.refracktion.org/index.php/dan-byles-and-the-74000-jobs-joke/ We argued that the basis of the calculations was childishly simplistic, and we asked how an MP like Dan Byles could put his name to supporting them. We were...

New Award – The Golden Globes

New Award – The Golden Globes

We are always keen to recognise the stalwart efforts of the fracking industry’s supporters to keep us amused as we swim upstream against the tide of PR drivel. We thought it would be appropriate to mark some of the more outstanding examples with a formal award. So without further ado...

Instead of a coherent energy policy Mr Osborne offers us juvenile pap

Instead of a coherent energy policy Mr Osborne offers us juvenile pap

Sometimes, as we read about the Coalition Government’s clumsy attempts to justify their failure to put together a coherent energy policy to carry us through the next decades we smile. Sometimes we despair. Today was one of those days. In a feeble attempt to bite back at Ed Milliband’s headline...

What really made Cuadrilla abandon Anna’s Road

What really made Cuadrilla abandon Anna’s Road

It was YOU! Yesterday Cuadrilla announced their decision to pull out of Anna’s Road and to restore the site (as far as is possible) to its greenfield state. Francis Egan claims that the reason for the abandonment is “technical constraints related to wintering birds”. He stated that their planning permission...

Correspondence with a councillor

Correspondence with a councillor

My local County Councillor is Tim (20 mph) Ashton, The Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport at Lancashire County Council can be seen here crossing Lytham Square, whilst apparently contravening rule 64 of the “Highway Code Rules for Cyclists” which states that “You MUST NOT cycle on a pavement. Laws...

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Councillor Gordon McCann and the “criminals” of RAFF

Last night saw a meeting of the Standards Committee of Wyre Council. The first item on the agenda was the reprehensible behaviour of Cllr Gordon McCann (pictured right) at this Summer’s Shale Gas World Conference. We reported on that sorry story here According to Wyre’s Democratic Services department the committee,...