Peak Oil is You
Donate Bitcoins ;-) or Paypal :-)
Page added on June 5, 2016
Scotland Bans Fracking… Forever
The Scottish Parliament voted to ban fracking countrywide on Wednesday, making a moratorium on the controversial technique a permanent affair.
The narrow vote can after the legislative body temporary outlawed fracking in January 2015 while it conducted a public health impact assessment and consulted environmental experts.
The Scottish Greens, the Liberal Democrats, and the Labour Party joined together to hand a 32-29 defeat to the Conservatives, who vehemently opposed the permanent measure, The Guardian reported.
Legislators affiliated with the Scottish National Party chose to abstain from the vote, which prompted its fellow liberal parties to call on the group’s leaders to clarify its position on fracking and its energy platform.
The Scottish National Party’s energy minister, Paul Wheelhouse, said he and his government remained “deeply skeptical” on the merits of fracking and confirmed that the practice would not be allowed in Scotland until there is clear evidence that it does not cause health-related or environmental harm.
Maurice Golden, a newly elected member of parliament for the Conservative party, argued in favor of fracking, and said the “leftwing cabal” of the three united liberal parties had been “ignoring” scientific evidence regarding the practice, which, if allowed, would add jobs and boost the economy.
The Scottish vote comes right after local leaders in the North Yorkshire region of the United Kingdom approved industrial tests that would allow fracking in the country for the first time in more than five years.
The Guardian reported that the go-ahead “swept aside” vocal protests from residents and environmentalists who feared “catastrophic seismic activity, health problems, and pollution” if hydraulic fracturing was introduced.
Two other high-profile applications to frack in the Lancashire area have been rejected by councilors since late-2011, but the companies have lodged appeals to reverse the decisions.
The UK remains one of the few European countries that has not banned fracking on a national level. Hydraulic fracturing has been seen by many as a means of decreasing the dependence on Russian natural gas deliveries. The contrary seemed to have taken place however as Gazprom’s CEO Alexei Miller said on June 1 that natural gas exports to the U.K. have increased by 91,5 percent to 3.85 billion cubic meters in the first five months of the year.
8 Comments on "Scotland Bans Fracking… Forever"
Boat on Sun, 5th Jun 2016 4:50 pm
Democracy in action. When will the people in China and Russia vote.
GregT on Sun, 5th Jun 2016 4:59 pm
Democracy;
5 wolves and 1 sheep, voting on what to eat for dinner.
makati1 on Sun, 5th Jun 2016 6:00 pm
Gregt, yes, “democracy” is dead everywhere, IF it ever truly existed. I believe that Americans are going to find that out in November. If Billary is not in jail and she “wins” I think it will be the beginning of the end of the US as a country. But then, I also think that is the elite’s plan. A One World Government requires a level playing field for ALL countries and moneys. The US has to be brought down to the 3rd world level, just as Europe is being brought down, and the Middle east, etc. The only blockage is China, Iran and Russia who have their own pans. Or so it seems. We shall see. Very entertaining though.
onlooker on Sun, 5th Jun 2016 6:16 pm
Yes, true Democracy probably has never existed. This is because we have failed to understand ourselves and our prime emotions and motivations. Nothing that can endure can be built on a shaky foundation. We should have long ago rejected violence ,greed and power attainment as inimical to all our best interests, then maybe we could have build a society based on consensual decision making. Nothing positive can now come from within this self made matrix of a world we have created.
DMyers on Sun, 5th Jun 2016 6:52 pm
A recent study came to the conclusion that about 250,000 people are killed by the US health care system each year. This does not include by-product deaths from negligence. The system directly causes these deaths, which would otherwise not have occurred at the time.
The US health care system is predicated on a mission to save, certainly not to kill, people. They are equipped with lifesaving machines, and they are doused regularly with buckets of antiseptic and antibiotic to ward off the germs of death.
Consider metaphorically that the health care system is a fracking operation, and the deaths it causes are the equivalent of leaks from the fracking operation, such as poison chemicals seeping into areas that will affect humans adversely. If even the health care industry leaks 250K dead each year, as a matter of course in the marginal areas, it is very likely that fracking has its own lethal margins of error. Any large operation that is capable of causing harm will do so pursuant to Murphy’s Law.
The health care industry asserts that it is qualified to make deadly allocations in the cause of health. The frackers are doing the same, accepting the sacrifice of a few for the benefit of the many, which justifies silence on casualties.
But what if you are one of the sacrificed? Suppose the home you finally purchased after many years is suddenly worthless because it has fracking-caused combustible well water. Or suppose it is your kid who was killed by medical “care” or made an invalid by a vaccine cocktail at the age of ten.
Since fracking is going to cause harm to some people, its prohibition is justified. The sacrifice of a few for the many may be true to democratic principles, but when people realize that they have as much chance as anyone of becoming one of the inevitable sacrifices, the majority and minority become as one.
Kenz300 on Mon, 6th Jun 2016 8:21 am
Big Oil Could Have Cut CO2 Emissions In 1970s — But Did Nothing
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/big-oil-emissions_us_573c9d81e4b0aee7b8e8a046
New Documents Show Oil Industry Even More Evil Than We Thought
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/oil-cover-up-climate_us_570e98bbe4b0ffa5937df6ce
Climate Change is real….. we will all be impacted by it
.
Oil Giants Spend $115 Million A Year To Oppose Climate Policy
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/oil-companies-climate-policy_us_570bb841e4b0142232496d97
The Kochs Are Plotting A Multimillion-Dollar Assault On Electric Vehicles
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/koch-electric-vehicles_us_56c4d63ce4b0b40245c8cbf6
Inside the Koch Brothers’ Toxic Empire | Rolling Stone
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/inside-the-koch-brothers-toxic-empire-20140924?page=2
rockman on Mon, 6th Jun 2016 11:03 am
It hasn’t been banned “forever”. It has been banned until the public demands reinstatement when their energy supplies become critical. Same holds true for the ban in New York. How long until that time? Who knows? But given the decline in North Sea production and cancelled projects it might not be very long.
PracticalMaina on Mon, 6th Jun 2016 11:55 am
Maybe the EROEI is gonna be better on offshore wind than fracking, by maybe I would put my money on it. That is a small nation, public transportation makes sense, also a tourism destination, so public transportation becomes more profitable. If I were to visit those Isles, I would want to visit pubs, not have to drive, see some rolling hills, and local culture not drilling equip and oil worker titty bars.