At this slack time for news, one thing which has stayed in the UK headlines over the past few weeks is the campaign being mounted against the test drilling by Cuadrilla outside the Sussex village of Balcombe. Billed as a protest against fracking and the focus of attention from a range of groups including No Dash for Gas, the roots of this current action actually go much deeper.
First, it is clear that Cuadrilla, the company which has previously used fracking when exploring for shale gas in the Morcambe Bay area, only has a licence to drill a conventional well and is looking for oil, not gas. Any fracking would be subject to the granting of a new licence. Nevertheless, fracking is being used as a good way to capture headlines.
There is a undoubtedly a range of protestors at the Balcombe camp and there are definitely local residents who oppose the current drilling. But the whole event bears the hallmark of a typical activist circus: a hard core of dedicated protestors has found a high profile campaign to support and will continue with this until something more newsworthy comes along. In reality, the focus is not fracking or even on-shore drilling, but climate change activism.
Climate change is itself a proxy for what the protestors don’t like about modern industrialised societies, but it presents a clear cause and, unusually, finds the activists broadly aligned with the political Establishment in supporting the need to take action. The main difference is in the extent of this action. Politics being the art of the possible, an elected government can only go so far in taking action such as raising energy prices before the population begins to withhold it support. Self-appointed campaign groups exist to put pressure on for tougher action. In their view, the current mood music from the government on shale gas is a step in the wrong direction, and the action at Balcombe is their way to fight it.
This has already been very successful. Cuadrilla has held back on further drilling, apparently on advice from the local police, the protestors seem set to stay for an extended period to continue the impasse, and the media are lapping up the story. Having had a high-profile visit from Bianca Jagger, we now read of the arrest this week of Caroline Lucas, the sole Green MP in Westminster which has given more opportunities for the campaign to receive the oxygen of publicity.
The situation seems finely balanced. Despite the previous uncontroversial drilling in the area, the numerous other existing on-shore wells and the lack of any evidence that properly-regulated fracking causes any more problem than other drilling or mining, No Dash for Gas and its comrades-in-arms have started a battle which they have a chance of winning. If the Balcombe drilling is abandoned, the message will be that exploration for new local sources of gas, oil or coal are not welcome. The cause of energy security will be ratcheted back and businesses will consider whether their future might lie elsewhere.
Looking at the Balcombe story more broadly, it is certain that the drilling would have produced local opposition, even without the climate change issue. Any significant local infrastructure project causes concerns and, everything being equal, people are less than happy to see industrial structures being erected in their neighbourhood. But energy plants have to be built somewhere and the debate then hinges on the need for them.
If gas and oil can be extracted economically, it seems right that exploration should be allowed, with proper controls. However desirable it might be to phase out fossil fuels in the long term, we currently have no viable alternative for the bulk of our energy needs. Similarly, new nuclear power stations should tick the right boxes for most people, both for affordable, secure energy and reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. But wind farms – subject to intense local opposition, but favoured by Caroline Lucas and her fellow protestors – do not make sense when the hard evidence is examined.
Perhaps people would be willing to have enormous turbines within a mile or two of their houses if they made a real contribution to energy security and emissions reduction, if you believe that to be necessary. But the reality is that they do little in either respect. Their continued support is due to existing government commitments and the fashionable view that renewables are good, even if they don’t work. Let’s hope that the government doesn’t weaken in the face of the Balcombe protestors. To do so would be a real blow to our future energy security.
Martin Livermore
The Scientific Alliance
St John’s Innovation Centre
Cowley Road
Cambridge CB4 0WS