Liz Truss, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Sammy Wilson have gone stark raving mad over fracking - and whatever shenanigans they think they are pulling - the whole thing is downright ridiculous.
I will tell you why.
Fracking is extremely environmentally destructive, has caused earthquakes, poisoned water sources and led to all sort of serious health concerns in the USA where the practice is rampant. But how is it done?
Read more: The Earth's Corr: Leaders as much to blame for 40 yrs of Big Oil's climate lies
Frackers blast a mix of sand, water and noxious chemicals at high pressures far beneath the earth to fracture rocks and release the gases held there.
While they try to capture the most of it at the surface - because they want to sell if for $$$ of course - some can escape into the atmopshere adding to the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, not including when its later burned for fuel.
Ireland has a ban on fracked gas, the practice itself is banned south of the border and until recently, the UK did too. Well, that’s until Liz Truss announced on the day the Queen (God rest her soul) died, that she was lifting the ban.
And now it’s back on the agenda - even if it was a political stunt.
The new PM - and our very own environmental terror Sammy Wilson - seem to think it’s a great idea to get all the gas out from under GB because - you know - cost of living crisis. But they are living a pipedream.
An expert in the field of fracking - the man whose company caused an earthquake in Blackpool that led to the ban - told the Guardian this week there’s no way we could have fracked gas in the UK in six months.
Chris Cornelius of Cuadrilla said the country’s geology is too challenging to exploit the gas at any meaningful scale. Then there’s the fact any fracked gas would belong to the companies that extract it - who would sell it on the open market to get the best price possible.
If it was allowed in the UK - or even here in NI where we still don’t have a fracking ban - how would that lower anyone’s bills when it goes to the highest bidder worldwide? For God’s sake, a planning application would also take years.
While in that time the UK could be making be making great progress if we did the right thing and prioritised renewables over fossil fuels. I know I sound like a broken record, but I’m hoping the message will eventually sink in.
We need offshore wind, we need solar panels and we need to be developing ways of using those renewables to create climate friendly green hydrogen to plug the gap for when the wind isn’t blowing.
Liz Truss accepted a £420,000 donation from the wife of a former BP executive for her premiership campaign.
She also joined Shell as a graduate trainee after leaving Oxford and worked for them as an industrial economist - so she clearly doesn’t have a problem with the oil industry.
She’s also opposed to charging fossil fuel firms a windfall tax on the billions of profit they are making to help ordinary people like you and me
And it stinks of a conflict of interest. Is she here for the people or the oil and gas industry - I really want to know?
Let’s set aside her pitifully poor future plans to deliver a renewables revolution to lower our bills and meet climate targets. She is also doing damn all to help people facing down the barrel of the energy crisis gun right now.
The £100 for oil powered homes in NI is a joke and we still don’t have any real details about how our bills are going to be capped at £2,500, like she said. Whatever happens, more gas, more oil and fracking is certainly not what we need.
It won’t lower our bills in the long term and we can’t keep pushing climate crisis concerns down the road for our children and grandchildren to deal with.
Think of the kids folks.
Economy no-shows
It’s an absolute disgrace officials from Department for the Economy failed to turn up to three invitations to share their energy strategy with Stormont’s All Party Group on Climate Action.
They were supposed to brief MLAs on energy and the cost of living crisis on Tuesday.
At a time when we need all the help and information we can get on this issue, it’s appalling they weren’t there.
Chair Kate Nicholl has every right to be fuming. She told me: “During a climate and cost of living crisis – with an extremely tough winter looming an uncertainty as to how the people in Northern Ireland will be supported - we expect more accountability than this.
“DfE declined to send a nominee the day before the meeting was scheduled to take place - this is the third time this has happened.
“Many MLAs and external stakeholders, including young people, cleared time in their diary to attend the meeting, hoping to discuss this critical issue. We had over 60 attendees.”
Just Wright
Politicians and other industry leaders could do with taking a leaf out of the Wrightbus book.
Their firm has just been awarded for its innovation in helping to combat climate change at the Community 2022 Responsible Business Awards. Very well deserved.
The news comes hot on the heals of a partnership with Volger to supply Australian city Brisbane with hydrogen buses.
Brisbane is already a city apart when it comes to its plant covered buildings, city parks and transport. And now this.
NI is clearly a world leader on zero emissions buses, now let’s get there with all our other forms of transport and truly become the green country we claim to be.
Ian Gillott, Wrightbus Managing Director, said: “We will continue to press the case for more support for zero emissions transport, both in the UK and all around the globe, to ensure vital net zero targets are not missed.”
Pre-loved is best
Second hand September is nearly at an end and I am proud to say I’ve not bought one new thing from a clothes shop.
In fact, I plan to keep the trend going right to the end of the year and beyond.
I am on the lookout for a new coat and have been trawling second-hand and preloved shops across the city as well as vintage sites online for some time. And when I find the one I am looking for I know I’ll be chuffed to bits.
There’s something to be said for delayed gratification instead of the incessant, quick hits we are all in search of these days with fast fashion brands swooping in to tempt us in every way possible.
Why not take a bit more time building your wardrobe into a capsule of pieces you love, so you always have something to wear.
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