Scotland has declared a moratorium on approvals for unconventional oil and gas projects, including fracking, to allow time for public consultations and a full public health assessment of the controversial techniques.
Anti-fracking campaigners call Energy Minister Fergus Ewing’s announcement “a very big nail in the coffin for the unconventional gas and fracking industry in Scotland.”
- Be among the first to read The Energy Mix Weekender
- A brand new weekly digest containing exclusive and essential climate stories from around the world.
- The Weekender:The climate news you need.
“While we are calling for an outright ban, a halt on the industry while a full examination of health and environmental impacts is carried out is very welcome,” said Friends of the Earth Scotland Director Richard Dixon. “We are convinced that a proper examination of the mounting evidence of health and environmental concerns must lead to a full ban.”
Earlier in the week, the UK’s coalition government rejected an outright moratorium, but “had to accept several Labour proposals to tighten regulation of shale developments,” the Guardian reports.
Ewing said public consultations “will allow everyone with a view to feed it in to government,” from the communities that would bear the brunt of any development, to Ineos, a chemical giant that owns the Grangemouth oil and gas refinery and holds 729 square miles of fracking exploration licences around Scotland’s central belt.
