The UK government recently proposed new rules under which oil and gas companies may be granted access to land below 300m from the surface, regardless of owners' consent. Fracking or hydraulic fracturing for natural gas is a hotly debated issue in the world, with some countries banning it altogether and others giving it a green light. While the industry leaders highlight its benefits, health and environmental groups raise concerns about its safety. To discuss how fracking can affect our lives, the host of Voice of Russia's Agree or Disagree Marina Dzhashi have invited Lisa Parr who won 3 million dollars in a case against fracking company in Texas, and George Barda, social and environmental justice campainger in the UK...
Part I
Part II
Is fracking an inevitable reality, because the oil companies are too powerful, or is it still forth fighting for its ban?
Lisa Parr: I definitely think that they should find the safest way to do the drilling, fracking and production processes, keep it in the pipes. They make more profit when they do that and they don’t make people sick. And if they can’t find a safe way, I definitely don’t think they should do it.
George Barda: We have to fight against it. If fracking and tar sands, and deep water drilling in the Arctic and all these new forms of what they call extreme energy are allowed to go ahead, then we can kiss goodbye to any chance of the remotely stable climate. And it carries with it numerous and, I gather, unsolvable problems in terms of polluting water and air. And there is a huge problem with methane escaping, which is a far stronger greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
How do people react in the UK to a widespread support of fracking among the MPs?
George Barda: 74% of people are against it and that includes the majority of people who voted for the Conservative Party that is in power. So, it is a very interesting situation, that the Government was expected to sort of lock in this change in the infrastructure bill, but they’ve actually stepped back and started a consultation.
Opponents of hydraulic fracturing called your victory a landmark. Has your life change for the better?
Lisa Parr: The well that is close to our property, the Attorney General stepped in and suit them, and told them to get it in compliance. So, they have shut it down. Since they’ve had to shut that down, they shut two other wells down there and it’s made it a little better.
What can you say about your situation in the UK?
George Barda: We have all the American experience to learn from. People like Lisa Parr and thousands of other families have been used as guinea pigs in what was known in advance to be an incredibly toxic experiment. There are many known neurotoxins amongst all sorts of other incredibly poisonous materials associated with fracking. And that is the stuff they put into the ground. By the way, there is also a radioactive material that is destabilized in the earth because they are going so deep. So, the situation in the UK is that we are armed as activists with this information.
Of course, the companies offer people huge sums of money and it is hard to resist it. But it doesn’t solve the problem, does it?
Lisa Parr: No, is definitely doesn’t solve the problem. It helped our neighbours to get out of their home. And nobody is going to buy their house, it was devalued from $207 000 down to $75 000.
What may lessen the public activity is the way the idea of fracking is sold in the UK. Energy customers are hoping that they will see the benefits through their bills. Is it likely to be the case?
George Barda: It is not. The Head of the biggest fracking company in the UK called Cuadrilla said that the prices won’t go down. The International Energy Agency said the prices won’t go down if it will be sold on the international market.
