INEOS Should Develop Greener Energy, Move Away From Fracking

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The multinational chemicals giant INEOS should work to develop greener energy alternatives in Scotland instead of importing shale gas from the United States, Mary Church, the campaigns manager for the Friends of the Earth international environmental organization, told Sputnik on Saturday.

"Fracking is a dirty, dangerous process with a disastrous legacy of water, air and environmental pollution. Climate change demands that we rapidly move away from the extraction and burning of fossil fuels. Ineos should be working to transform the Grangemouth plant to a low carbon model instead of propping it up with dirty fracked gas from the US," Church said.

The comment comes several days before Tuesday's planned arrival of the first INEOS shale gas shipment from United States to Scotland. The shipment, which will arrive at Scotland's Grangemouth manufacturing terminal, should "revitalize" European manufacturing, according to the company. In March, when the gas left the United States, INEOS said that US shale gas should complement falling North Sea gas production.

The Scottish government has implemented a moratorium on fracking and plans to acquire licenses to frack for shale gas in sites across Scotland have faced strong opposition from environmental groups. The moratorium indicates that fracking is unacceptable both in Scotland and anywhere else, Church stressed.

"The Scottish Government’s moratorium on fracking is looking into the many dangers that fracking poses including to public health, water contamination, transport impacts and worsening climate change. We urge the Government to act swiftly to ban fracking and work for a just transition to a low carbon economy across all sectors," she added.

INEOS owns one of the United Kingdom’s largest refineries at Grangemouth. It has secured shale gas exploration licenses for 700 square miles of Scotland. The company says it wants to invest 640 million pounds ($910 million) in fracking despite the Scottish moratorium.

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a technique of extracting shale gas and oil by injecting pressurized toxic liquid into the ground. Opponents of fracking argue the process poses numerous health, safety and environmental risks, including the potential for fracking fluids and waste to leak into water as well as the large volume of water used.