Hi folks A lot has happened over the weekend! Quick summary below and what’s coming up: - on Thursday the Broad Alliance’s letter went to all MPs calling on them to vote the right way on Monday on Infrastructure Bill amendments. Lots of other letters and emails and visits to MPs hopefully! We know of some, please do share feedback if you did any of these things. - Scottish Labour announced they will introduce a moratorium on shale gas fracking if elected next year. Announcement limited to shale gas, but Environment Spokesperson Sarah Boyack MSP confirmed would also apply to coal bed methane. This is important and good news because the ‘triple-lock’ requires not only to wait for impacts to be understood from extraction elsewhere in UK (this would take many decades to do properly) but also requires local referendums before fracking could take place. Labour also calling on Scottish Government to use existing powers to block fracking before full oil & gas licensing powers devolved, and saying they would do so if elected ahead of Smith Commission powers taking effect. - SNP announced that they will vote for a moratorium on unconventional gas (if it comes to a vote) in tomorrows Infrastructure Bill debate. The amendment they have committed to supporting calls for a time bound moratorium of 18-30 months while work to assess the industry’s impacts on climate, economy, environment and health is carried out. Energy Minister Fergus Ewing announced that he has written to UK Government asking them not to issue any more licenses in Scotland before onshore oil and gas licensing powers are devolved to Holyrood. The SNPs support for a moratorium at Westminster is caveated to support this position. coverage at: heraldscotland/news/environment/snp-and-labour-move-to-suspend-fracking-and-onshore-gas-mining.116881015 bbc/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-30959646 news.stv.tv/scotland-decides/news/307717-jim-murphy-demands-scot-government-increase-fracking-safeguards/ - Sunday Herald article revealed a conflict between Canonbie MSP Joan McAlpine and Energy Minister Fergus Ewing over his apparent support for unconventional gas extraction. More pressure on Government at the right time - great work Bill & Loraine!. heraldscotland/news/environment/snp-and-labour-move-to-suspend-fracking-and-onshore-gas-mining.116881015. Also great piece on Rob Edwards website about the failure to regulate at Canonbie robedwards/2015/01/the-failure-to-regulate-underground-gas-in-canonbie.html - 200 strong demo at Grangemouth today! BBC and STV filming for coverage of Infrastructure Bill story On Monday: - Broad Alliance letter published in the National (hopefully) and another exciting article - the UK Environmental Audit Committee will publish their report on shale gas fracking. It is expected to be highly damning in terms of health and environmental impacts, but also the economic viability of the industry. Publication is timely, ahead of Westminster debate / vote on Infrastructure Bill amendments. **Please note: this report is confined to examining impacts of shale gas fracking and does not cover coal bed methane** - Infrastructure Bill will be debated and voted on. At this stage it is unclear how amendments will be selected / grouped for debate and / or voting. Friends of the Earth will be following the debate and tweeting etc (follow us at @FoEScot), and will report on how our various MPs voted. The debate will start sometime after 2:30pm and could take a very long time - the Bill is huge and covers all kinds of other issues, not just fracking. You can watch whats going on at parliamentlive.tv/Main/Live.aspx On Tuesday or Wednesday: - Energy Minister Fergus Ewing will make a statement in Scottish Parliament as to how we intend to take forward and strengthen our precautionary approach’ to unconventional gas. We don’t know what this statement will be, but it could be announcing a moratorium or simply the further work on regulatory gaps and on health concerns that he said would be done after the Independent Expert Scientific Panel on Unconventional Gas reported last summer. While a moratorium is the logical thing to do (especially if you are announcing further work on regulation and health!) this is by no means guaranteed - Scottish Government won’t want to appear to be bumped into it by Labour, but they will have to be something that they think is a robust enough response to the challenge Labour have laid down, and, more importantly, the incredible and growing pressure from communities and activists. - we had agreed to send a letter from the Broad Alliance (based on the one that went to MPs on Thursday) to political parties to influence manifestos, and to Nicola Sturgeon asking for a meeting. I suggest we await the fall out of not only Monday’s vote but also Fergus’s announcement before we take this specific action forward… - ...however, we may need some kind of rapid response to whatever happens on Monday. What we can do in the meantime: KEEP THE PRESSURE UP! Maintain dialogue with MSPs and MPs during this really critical time. Let them see that we understand the nuances of what has been announced by the different parties over the weekend and that we won’t be satisfied until the Scottish Government uses the powers that it has to stop unconventional gas extraction in Scotland NOW. Use social media or whatever it is you do best to build up the pressure!
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 07:29:39 +0000
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