Opposition to fracking is based around “hysteria” and the public not understanding the Richter scale for seismic activity, Jacob Rees-Mogg has told MPs, after formally lifting the ban on drilling for shale gas in England.
The business and energy secretary told the Commons that the previous limit on the extent of potential earthquake activity caused by fracking – 0.5 on the Richter scale – was too low, and that quakes of 2.5 were a perfectly routine natural phenomenon globally.
Applications for new shale gas drilling can now be made, after confirmation from the government earlier on Thursday that the moratorium in place since November 2019 had been lifted.
Ministers approved the resumption in an attempt to boost domestic energy production, given soaring costs caused in part by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but said fracking would be allowed only with “local support”.
Responding to an urgent question from Labour, after the resumption of fracking was announced without a Commons statement, Rees-Mogg faced heavy criticism from some Conservative MPs, who noted that the pause on shale gas extraction was in the party’s 2019 manifesto, and repeatedly asked how local consent would be gauged.
But in a bullish performance, Rees-Mogg insisted fracking in England would drive down global gas prices and that opposition to it was “sheer ludditery”, often based on the public misunderstanding the science.
“It is safe. It is shown to be safe,” Rees-Mogg said. “The scare stories have been disproved time and again. The hysteria about seismic activity, I think, fails to understand that the Richter scale is a logarithmic scale. People seem to think it is a straight arithmetic scale, which of course it is not.”
Ed Miliband, the shadow secretary for climate change, told Rees-Mogg it was “nonsense” to argue that fracking in England could notably influence global gas prices, and accused the minister of changing safety limits without evidence.
“I look forward to him and his colleagues explaining his charter for earthquakes to the people of Lancashire, Yorkshire, the Midlands, Sussex, Dorset and indeed Somerset, who will be part of his dangerous experiment,” Miliband said.
“Let me tell the party opposite: we will hang this broken promise round their necks in every part of the country between now and the next general election.”
A number of Tory MPs expressed concern, and at times apparent anger with Rees-Mogg’s approach. “There is nothing luddite about the people of Lancashire or of Fylde,” said Mark Menzies, whose Fylde constituency is one particularly scrutinised by fracking firms.
Sir Greg Knight, the Tory MP for East Yorkshire, another area with shale gas reserves, told Rees-Mogg that the safety evidence of fracking was simply not there: “Is he aware, the safety of the public is not a currency some of us choose to speculate in?”
Several MPs pressed Rees-Mogg on public support or opposition would be measured, given the government’s promise that fracking will only take place with local backing.
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Rees-Mogg repeatedly declined to answer the question, only saying that it would be up to fracking companies to offer financial incentives, and that mass extraction of shale gas was in the “national interest”.
The Guardian revealed last week that a leaked government-commissioned report found little progress in reducing and predicting the risk of earthquakes caused by fracking.
Given there are only three test wells in the UK, the government said on Thursday that “we need more sites drilled in order to gather better data and improve the evidence base”, and added that “some developers are keen to assist with this process”.
But the about-turn will reignite claims of another broken 2019 Conservative manifesto promise, which said fracking would resume only if “the science shows categorically that it can be done safely”.
Claims that fracking would reduce heating bills were dismissed by the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, when he was business secretary.
In a letter to the British Geological Survey in April, in which he commissioned a report into fracking, Kwarteng said it was “not the solution to near-term price issues”. In February, he tweeted: “Additional UK production won’t materially affect the wholesale market price. This includes fracking – UK producers won’t sell shale gas to UK consumers below the market price. They’re not charities.”
