Category: Political Issues

The Infrastructure Bill debate

The Infrastructure Bill debate

So what happened yesterday? Well first of all we were treated to a report from the Commons Environmental Audit Committee. This hard-hitting report was hugely critical of fracking. It made it abundantly clear that fracking was incompatible with the UK’s obligations towards climate change mitigation. The full text of its...

Conclusions and Recommendations of the Environmental Audit Comittee

Conclusions and Recommendations of the Environmental Audit Comittee

On Monday morning (26th January 2015) the Environmental Audit Committee published its report into the “Environmental Risks of Fracking” It came out with 19 hard hitting conclusions and recommendations which are reproduced in full below. Being published on the day that MPs debated the Infrastructure Bill the report was a...

Lord Howell’s return to the desolate North

Lord Howell’s return to the desolate North

Well, desolate and derelict actually http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/fracking/10828543/Government-drive-for-fracking-losing-thousands-of-Tory-votes-Lord-Howell-warns.html http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/fracking-lord-howell-george-osbornes-3536842 Alan Tootill has summed up what has actually been said by Lord Howell below and, beneath the hype it is quite interesting and revealing. The atmosphere at Mr Osborne’s next family gathering may be a trifle frosty. On consideration, he has the right...

Numbers are pesky things ….

Numbers are pesky things ….

Sometimes politicians seem to be unable to forget figures which make them feel comfortable, even when more recent numbers contradict them, so yesterday we saw Mr Cameron trotting out his favourite 74,000 jobs from fracking rubbish? “Rubbish?” I hear you ask … Well, we demolished this figure on this blog...

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...

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...

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...