Don’t Frack California Rally Sends A Message To Governor Brown

I have been blogging for some time now. The subject of fracking is like a red flag to a bull for me. I can’t look the other way while this disastrous and damaging drilling is going on anywhere in the world.

What Fracking does to YOUR environment

I find it appalling that the state of California is even considering fracking for gas in the earthquake state! California has more fault lines than Golden Eagles! Please remember that Fracking causes earthquakes!

From the LiberalsUnite article:

California is in the midst of the second worst drought in the state’s history. Until recently it was the worst, alleviated only slightly by some welcome late winter rains. Fracking is a water intensive procedure and nearly all of the water used is not recoverable to use for other purposes. With water in such short supply and farmers literally begging the state for this most precious resource, it is hard to understand why our governor, who has campaigned on his previous environmental record, would take millions of gallons of water away from the farmers who produce a quarter of the food for this country and allow it to be used by the big oil companies to despoil the environment and contribute to climate change.

David Cameron Likes fracking and so do his rich corporate Friends!

David Cameron wants to frack here and we are saying NO!

Like Californians, we can see the environmental damage fracking will cause. Earthquakes have already been linked to fracking in the UK. Protests have popped up every where that fracking is considered in England. The Barton-Moss protesters just won a court ruling allowing them to stay and continue their struggle to keep our country free from fracking.

The BBC has published an article which reveals a growing concern over the damage fracking causes to our wildlife:

Fracking has the potential to devastate wildlife habitats across the UK, says research commissioned by leading wildlife and countryside groups.

The report ‘Are We Fit to Frack?’ was launched by six organisations including the National Trust and the RSPB. It was reviewed by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and is supported by a cross party group of MPs. It contains proposals to limit the potential impact of fracking on the environment. They include setting up so-called “no frack zones” around the UK’s most sensitive conservation areas. Harry Huyton is head of energy and climate change at the RSPB. He told BBC News: “We have found that there are serious potential risks to the environment from fracking.”

France has BANNED FRACKING FOREVER

We Need to do the same here in the UK!

Write to your MP Now!

Stop Hinkley is working for you

Stop Hinkley is dedicated to the decommissioning of all the nuclear reactors on the Bristol Channel and the Severn Estuary and is committed to the introduction of greener technologies more appropriate to this millennium.

Stop Hinkley Site

Stop Hinkley started life in the mid-eighties as ‘Stop Hinkley Expansion’ (SHE). As the name suggests, the goal was to ward off the government plan to build a new Pressurised Water Reactor known as Hinkley C.

Stopping Hinkley C is vital to our renewable energy future

I have already covered the Stop Hinkley movement. Working to stop new nuclear power in the UK is vital to our renewable future. You have the videos to watch via these links to the original blog posts: video 1, video 2, video 3, video 4.

France banned fracking! UK needs to ban fracking also?

Fracking has been covered here too. France has BANNED fracking forever because the French people care for their environment. We need to stop fracking in the UK for the same reasons.

Frack Free February logo

Last meeting 27th February 2014 in bath

Frack Free February is a Month of Action in Somerset with public meetings, talks, stalls, workshops, actions and more all raising awareness about the threats to our communities and the bigger picture of extreme energy.

Stop Hinkley C and Frack Free Somerset are holding a few meetings you need to know about: Radiation Risks of Fracking and Nuclear Waste.

Write to your MP

Write to your MP now!

Wiki discusses costs of fracking

Health effects

One study suggests that hydraulic fracking is sickening and killing cows, horses, goats, llamas, chickens, dogs, cats, fish and other wildlife, as well as humans. The study covered cases in Colorado, Louisiana, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas.^[15] The case studies include reports of hundreds of cows dying as well as stillborn and stunted calves after exposure to hydraulic fracturing spills from dumping of the fluid into streams and from workers slitting the lining of a wastewater impoundment (evaporation ponds) so that it would drain and be able to accept more waste. The wastewater then drained into a pasture and a pond. The study noted that it was difficult to assess health impact because of the industry’s strategic lobbying efforts that resulted in legislation allowing them to keep the proprietary chemicals in the fluid secret, protecting them from being held legally responsible for contamination. Bamberger stated that if you don’t know what chemicals are, you can’t conduct pre-drilling tests and establish a baseline to prove that chemicals found postdrilling are from hydraulic fracturing.^[15] The researchers recommended requiring disclosure of all hydraulic fracturing fluids, that nondisclosure agreements not be allowed when public health is at risk, testing animals raised near hydraulic fracturing sites and animal products (milk, cheese, etc.) from animal raised near hydraulic fracturing sites prior to selling them to market, monitoring of water, soil and air more closely, and testing the air, water, soil and animals prior to drilling and at regular intervals thereafter.^[15]

Early in January 2012, Christopher Portier, director of the US CDC‘s National Center for Environmental Health and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, argued that, in addition to the EPA’s plans to investigate the impact of fracking on drinking water, additional studies should be carried out to determine whether wastewater from the wells can harm people or animals and vegetables they eat.^[16] A week later, a group of US doctors called for a moratorium on fracking in populated areas until such studies had been done.^[17][18]

Please write to your MP.

Cameron spends our money

David Cameron is again playing to the media when he promises to spend what ever it takes to mend flood damage.

Somerset floods – from the Guardian

Cameron won’t fix the problems

What he is also saying is that he will not spend any money to solve the underlying problems of flooding. by Thursday he had backtracked and was quoted in the FT:

“money is no object” in dealing with the flooding crisis, telling the House of Commons that this pledge applies only to the immediate clear-up operation…

Greenest government ever is a failure at all forms of sustainability

What this really means is that it will be business as usual for ‘the Greenest government ever.’ Cameron will continue to help out his friends in the oil and gas industry.

There will be no end to the insanity and financial ruin which up to 50 new power plants will create.

You and I will be stuck with hundreds of tons of nuclear waste: we have no place to store this waste and the cost of keeping it safe now is always going up.

We will suffer the environmental harm caused by Cameron’s friends in the fracking industry.

Please write to your representative.

Stop plans to frack in Lancashire

Fracking alert for Lancashire. News just in. Quadrilla is seeking approval to frack in Lancashire.

Read the full article

Full Article: Fracking’ bid at two new sites

Here is the article reprinted:

GAS exploration company Cuadrilla today unveiled plans to carry out fracking at two new Lancashire sites.

The firm has earmarked new exploration sites in the parishes of Treales, Crease, Roseacer and Wharles, and Westby-with-Plumptons.

Cuadrilla was today informing local residents of the plans and has set plans in motion to apply to Lancashire County Council for permission to drill up to four wells on each of the two sites. It could be a year before fracking actually begins.

The first site, at Roseacre Wood, is located to the south of the village of Roseacre. and the second is located north of Preston New Road (the A583), to the west of Little Plumpton.

Cuadrilla chief executive Francis Egan said: “This is a significant step. We know there’s a lot of gas in the ground and we need to know how much gas will flow out.”

Frack Off Quadrilla

Fracking alert for ever

We really do need to keep up the fight to stop fracking in the UK. All the money spent on fracking here is money that cant be spent on renewable energy. If we started spending more money on renewables then we would not need to frack at all.

Fracking causes environmental damage here and adds to our green house gasses. Fracking only creates more problems.

Many world wide oppose fracking

Many people in the UK, the USA, France, Germany and the rest of the world are waking up to the fraking disaster. Everywhere you go on the planet you find folks objecting to fracking.

The People of the UK are fighting to stop fracking in many places with great success.

Balcombe Fracking Protesters Stop Quadrilla

Citizens in the USA oppose fracking

Protesters take to the streets  in the US state of  New York.

New York Anti-Fracking Protesters

France banned fracking forever!

France’s constitutional court has upheld a ban on hydraulic fracturing, permanently baring the fracking business based on environmental grounds.

Anti-fracking protesters in La Petite Brosse, outside Paris. Photograph: Pierre Andrieu/AFP/Getty Images

German government agrees to ban fracking too!

German protesters have gained government agreement to ban fracking.

Germans win fracking BAN

Activists from 26 countries participated in around 250 protests on Saturday to demonstrate against fracking technologies, which they say contaminate groundwater and hasten climate change.

Here in Bucharest.

World Wide Anti-Fracking Protests

Here in Canada.

Canadian Anti-Fracking Protesters

Everywhere they want to frack we are there. Why? Because we want a world safe from pollution in our water.

Bill de Blasio Is Against Fracking

Renewable energy now to save our planet

We do this because we want to ride the roller coaster with our children.

New Jersey Shore Still Heavily Damaged Months After Hurricane Sandy

We do this because we like safe and stable ground to build our houses.

Fracking Causes Earth Quake Swarms

We need to own our means of energy production and end the greed

We do this because we are not greedy corporate profiteers.

House Republicans Have Passed 3 Bills To Help The Natural Gas Industry Just This Week

Now Are you Fracked Off ? Very Good. Time to:

Write your MP.

Write to your local council.

Write to your Congressman or Senator.

I used to have a great job. I went to work earlier than normal. I worked more than 8 hours a day, and I made a good wage. I sold insulation, boilers, and solar energy systems for home owners. They all loved their upgraded homes and their PV systems and are now enjoying the benefits of the FIT. They are warm and have lower energy bills.

David Cameron cut the FIT payment scheme by more than half and the great job ended. I was out of work, unable to support myself or my family. The higher tax rates I had been paying to the government turned into a JSA – Job seekers allowance payment to me. I was not alone. The entire division of my company that used to sell and install solar systems went under. The parent company was bought for peanuts by a capital investment company. More workers lost their jobs. Estimates are that the radical and needless cut in the FIT tariff caused around 40,000 to lose their jobs.

I have finally found a new job working for a big company selling insulation, boilers and solar systems. This company had contracted with the BIG 6 energy suppliers to use their ECO contributions to help those families in fuel poverty.

Over 2 million homes in the UK have problems with energy bills and have to chose between heating or eating. I have blogged in the past regarding the rip-off rises in electricity and gas over the last few years. Cameron has wrongly blamed these rises on the ECO and Green Deal programs that the government has put in place. This is not true. The cost increases are due to greedy energy suppliers who are manipulating the wholesale cost of energy and then passing the charges on to YOU the poor consumer. They make lots more money each time they do this.

Now Cameron is pushing back the ECO targets. Eco funding was set to help the poor and unfortunate who can’t heat their homes because it costs too much. New boilers and insulation in an older home will help reduce the costs of heating a home. It will also reduce our dependency on foreign fossil fuels and remove the need to frack in the UK.

The more energy efficient we become as a nation the more we become independent from foreign energy suppliers. Greater efficiency leads to reduced need, which leads to no new nuclear power plants being build. Reducing our energy usage also helps us to meet the carbon targets we have agreed to reach. Our climate is changing and we are paying the price with greater storms and flooding. We need to change our ways to help our climate and our country.

David Cameron has decided to use the fraudulent rises in energy prices as an excuse to cut funding to the ECO program. Employers have already begun laying off staff because the energy companies have said they don’t have to fund these programs any more. The cut in funding has been immediate. The loss of jobs has been as fast. Has your bill gone down yet??

Mine hasn’t gone down. IF your bill does go down please comment on this blog so I can spread the good news. I don’t expect to see allot of comments. Cameron is once again helping his friends in#stead of you. Cameron is cutting government support for ECO like he did FIT and we are paying the price with climate change, new nuclear plants, fracking, and a loss of jobs.

Write to your MP and tell them to return the ECO funding now!

Mr Cameron is quoted again on the 24th supporting fracking as a way to create much needed jobs. Perhaps it is his Big Oil connections that are driving his agenda. We do need more good jobs but David: you are taking the mick!

You are the man who cut the FIT payment that was supporting the solar PV business.  40,000 jobs were lost in the FIT cut disaster. Solar PV sales have not yet recovered the pace of pre-FIT-cut period.

Now you say you think we can make more jobs by fracking? How about creating more jobs in the renewable energy industry David? You are so keen to advance the agenda of your pals in the oil and gas sector. You ran to France to sign deals for nuclear power plants that most people do not want.

England does not have all the nuclear engineers need to build the new plants. We will have to hire them from abroad. That is not helping the UK it is helping your friends.

How about we start looking for renewable energy programs to fund and build? Germany has over 300,000 jobs in renewable energy and we can too. Maybe if your cronies were not telling you how to reap more profits you could see the truth about job creation in the UK economy, David.

Are you tired of the hype? write to your MP and tell him/her to stop Cameron in his tracks!

I have left the UK for a week to see family in the USA. Here there is a drought. Back in the UK there are floods and too much rain. There is agreement amongst scientists and the data that man made climate change is causing the weather patterns we are seeing these days. As the storms get stronger with wind speeds higher and rain fall greater, we continue to miss the opportunity to change.

The cost climate change to the UK economy is growing. Flood defenses and rising damage to property and our road and rail infrastructure are going up. Current estimates to repair our highways are around £400 million. The provisional £400m figure comes from a survey of highway managers in England and Wales – with a final total due by April which is expected to be significantly higher.

While David Cameron continues to pursue a policy that supports Big oil we are faced with some very simple truths. If we do not begin to change our ways we will be drowned in the greed, ignorance, and stupidity of our inaction. Renewable energy is clean green and available now. If our government starts supporting more wind, more solar, and other renewable technologies we may still have a chance. When our government starts giving tax breaks and monetary incentives to create the renewable energy  future we need now, we will begin to move in the right direction.

Fracking is not the answer. It is a step farther towards the destruction of property and lives through climate change.  We can not allow our government to lead us like lemmings to the cliff edge. We need to act now to change the direction we are moving. You can help!

Write to your MP and tell him to support renewable energy. Write to you MP and tell them that you oppose fracking. Write to your MP and let ten know that they need to change their ways before it is too late for us all.

Natalie Bennett  Green Party leader says it better than I could. Here is her blog Post on The Huffington Post blog Site in its entirety:

Monday’s announcement from the government of ‘bribes’ to be offered to local councils and communities that accept the presence of fracking for shale gas can be seen as a sign of two things.

The first is desperation – the resistance to the government’s enthusiasm to fracking has been strong and determined. From the camp at Balcombe in leafy Sussex, to the site at Barton Moss on the edge of Manchester airport, where 500 people gathered yesterday to show their opposition to the drilling there, across the country, surveys show that Britons understand that fracking is something they don’t want in their back yard, in their region, or in their country.

The second aspect of the government’s bribe is that they demonstrate fracking for shale gas is something you really wouldn’t want to have near you. Just like you offer a child a sweet if they’ll swallow their nasty-tasting medicine, the government’s very offer demonstrates the unattractiveness of fracking for shale gas for local communities.

Further telling news that emerged this week was the announcement that French multinational Total is to invest in fracking here. Banned for conducting the procedure in its own country, which has instituted a moratorium on fracking, as Germany plans to do and Bulgaria has long done, it’s planning to come here.

Not surprising really, when Prime Minister David Cameron is boasting that he’s offering the most generous tax regime in Europe – indeed overall more generous than that offered by the United States. So Mr Cameron is seeking to enrich big multinational fossil fuel exploiters, while giving scant attention to the alternatives.

The first and most important of these is energy conservation, above all providing warm, comfortable, affordable-to-heat homes. For at the heart of our fuel poverty crisis is the fact that we have the leakiest, hardest-to-heat homes in Europe. One pound in four that we spend on heating is immediately wasted, the heat wafting straight up through an uninsulated ceiling or out through a draughty door or window.

The arguments are presented by the Energy Bill Revolution campaign – that taking the government’s income from carbon tax and investing it in improving our homes could create up to 200,000 jobs, lift nine out of 10 households out of fuel poverty, and cut our carbon emissions.

And there’s no doubt about the cheapest, greenest energy that we can possibly have – it’s the energy that we don’t use.

The other alternative, of course is renewable energy – solar, on- and off-shore wind, and tidal. The last two of those in particular offers the opportunity to develop homegrown British technologies and industries – creating good jobs in science, in engineering and installation, transferring maritime expertise from the off-shore oil industry to the needs of our low-carbon future.

Furthermore, renewables offer price certainty – the ‘fuel’ for all, sun, wind, tide – is always going to cost nothing, unlike gas, the rising prices of which have accounted for 85% of the doubling of household bills over a decade. And they offer the possibility of generating the energy we need with minimum contribution to our carbon emissions – which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last year incontrovertibly demonstrated that we need to reduce, fast, if we’re to avoid catastrophic climate change.

So the government is desperate to promote what’s clearly a wrong policy direction – which does provoke a question… Why?

First, we have to note that this is a government of the friends of multinationals, for the multinationals – whether in banking, in retail, or in energy, it’s operating in the interests of its friends, not the common good. More, there’s a disturbing number of members of the government with close links to the oil and gas industry. And there’s an almost religious fervour opposed to renewable energy, particularly wind farms, in elements of our Parliament – what you might call the Ukip-tendency of the Tory Party, that Mr Cameron is determined to placate.

See my previous post about Cameron, fracking and his links to Big Oil.