FRACKING for shale gas in Britain will be banned if the Labour Party wins the next UK General Election.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn made the announcement at his party’s conference in Liverpool in September.
The news was greeted with dismay by INEOS Shale which has a licence to explore more than a million acres in the UK for shale gas.
“We were deeply disappointed and surprised not to have at least had the opportunity to discuss the matter with him beforehand,” said Gary Haywood, CEO of INEOS Shale.
Gary has now written to Mr Corbyn to try to understand the rationale behind his decision – and has offered to meet senior Labour politicians.
In his speech to the party conference, Labour MP Barry Gardiner said renewables were the future.
“This is not a shale gas versus renewables debate,” said Gary. “As it stands, it leaves unanswered the question of how the UK will heat its homes, manufacture its products and keep the lights on when the wind isn’t blowing.”
In his letter to the leader of the Opposition, Gary explained that gas was the basic raw material needed to produce a multitude of chemical products that were used in most everyday items.
He said INEOS, which employs about 4,000 people in the UK, believed it was better to better to source energy from Britain, where it could be regulated, than pay a series of unstable and illiberal regimes to do it for us.
To quote Gary Smith, GMB Scotland Secretary, “We are increasingly going to be dependent on regimes fronted by henchmen, hangmen and headchoppers for the gas we need. That isn’t ethical and is surely an abdication of our environmental and moral responsibilities.”