Liz Truss LIFTS ban on fracking despite fears it can cause earthquakes saying it is vital to boost UK energy security – as firms mull offering 25% discounts on bills to get local residents to approve drilling near homes
- The Prime Minister told MPs the moratorium in place since 2019 will be lifted
- Told Commons it could lead to gas flowing out of the ground within six months
- But it will only be allowed in areas of the UK where there is ‘local support’
Liz Truss set herself up for a new fight with environmental groups and green Tories today as she confirmed she is lifting Boris Johnson‘s ban on fracking.
The Prime Minister told MPs the moratorium in place since 2019 will be lifted in areas where local communities support the technology.
Fracking firms are considering offering a 25 per cent discount on bills if local residents agree to allow fresh drilling near their homes.
However it remains to be seen how many people will welcome a process that has been linked to earth tremors.
The technology sees high-pressure water and gasses pumped into gas and oil-rich seams to break them open and extract the mineral wealth.
Ms Truss told the Commons: ‘We will end the moratorium on extracting our huge reserves of shale, which could get gas flowing as soon as six months, where there is local support for it.’
The Prime Minister told MPs the moratorium in place since 2019 will be lifted in areas where local communities support the technology.
Fracking firms are considering offering a 25 per cent discount on bills if local residents agree to allow fresh drilling near their homes.
Parliament’s All-Party Environment Group, chaired by Tory former minister Chris Skidmore – who baked Liz Truss in the Tory leadership campaign, has written to the PM urging her to recommit to reaching net zero by 2050, expand the use of renewable power and insulate more British homes to bring down bills permanently.
Labour has condemned the idea – and pointed out that many prospective sites are in marginal seats held by Tory MPs.
The technique has been widely used in the US, a country with wide open spaces.
But some senior Conservatives fear fracking is unsuited to a country as densely populated as the UK.
When he was business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng – now Chancellor – was sceptical about the speed and extent of the impact on gas prices.
In March, he wrote in The Mail on Sunday: ‘Even if we lifted the fracking moratorium tomorrow, it would take up to a decade to extract sufficient volumes – and it would come at a high cost for communities and our precious countryside.’
But Levelling Up Secretary Simon Clarke said today: ‘If we want energy sufficiency we have to look at every source, including clearly new nuclear, more renewables but we also want to look at technologies like fracking.’
Parliament’s All-Party Environment Group, chaired by Tory former minister Chris Skidmore – who baked Liz Truss in the Tory leadership campaign, has written to the PM urging her to recommit to reaching net zero by 2050, expand the use of renewable power and insulate more British homes to bring down bills permanently.
On Thursday and Friday Mr Skidmore will visit sites in the North West including a decarbonisation site in Liverpool, an energy efficient housing project in Salford and a peat restoration project in Oldham.
The former energy minister’s ‘net zero’ tour has been in the planning for months, with Mr Skidmore telling the PA news agency in May that he was intending to embark on a ‘Rolling Thunder’ tour to counter ‘populist’ opposition to net zero.
Ms Truss told MPs Mr Skidmore would lead a new review to make sure Net Zero could be achieved in a business-friendly way.