My Lords, I confess that I am somewhat mystified why we are discussing a fracking moratorium. It was not in the Bill as it left the Lords and the Commons declined to insert an amendment. What is there left for the Lords to consider?
There are two approaches for analysing this issue. The first we might call the appeal to reason. That was the title of the book by the noble Lord, Lord Lawson. What is the logic of the moratorium? It seems to me to be completely incoherent. It is argued, first, that we do not know enough to permit this technique to be deployed in the UK, but the moratorium would prevent drilling under careful restraints of the kind that the Minister has pointed out and it would prevent us advancing our knowledge. In my view, it is the logic of the GM-crop tramplers.
The next argument is that we cannot allow our shale reserves to be exploited as this would be inconsistent with the decarbonisation targets of the Climate Change Act. Setting aside the fact that our exploitation of
shale is pretty immaterial in a world where China has said that its CO2 emissions will continue to rise until 2030 and India refuses to set any such objective, this proposal ignores the fact that the largest part of gas usage is for heat in our homes and the feedstock for chemicals. That is not going to change for a long time given the slow turnover in our housing stock for several decades.
This morning, I looked at where the various sources of energy came from. At 11 am on a very cold and still day, we were using 46 gigawatts of energy. Of that, 6% came from wind and 43% from gas. This proposal ignores the fact that we need access to gas to provide the back-up when the wind does not blow in precisely these climatic conditions, which are repeated quite often each winter.
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The second approach to analysis is the appeal to authority. Who supports it and who is against it, and to which witness do you attach the greatest credibility? The attempted Commons amendment, which the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, has commended, received only derisory levels of support and was based on the findings of the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee. The committee identified a number of environmental risks which in its view justified a moratorium—water extraction, wastewater disposal, fugitive methane, land use, noise and so on. We should remember, however, that the House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs went over exactly the same ground but its conclusions were radically different. It saw substantial benefits to the UK and concluded that the environmental risks cited by the Commons committee were either not as serious as represented or could be managed by an effective regulatory framework.
Why do I attach greater weight to the Lords’ findings? It is not just because this is our House, or that I have greater faith in the judgment of the noble Lord, Lord Hollick, than that of Ms Joan Walley, or that the Lords’ findings are consistent with those of the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering; it is also because I believe that there is a structural flaw in the remit of the Environmental Audit Committee, which is to consider to what extent the policies and programmes of departments contribute to environmental protection and sustainable development.
A decade ago, government documents on energy policy cited four objectives: consistency with our environmental objectives on climate change, enhancing competition, reducing fuel poverty and strengthening energy security. The problem with the EAC and, I would say, the climate change committee, is that they have concentrated on one of these objectives to the detriment of the other three. As a result, I believe that their recommendations are flawed.
I have some misgivings about the heavy apparatus of steps that have to be gone through and the safeguards which the Minister has set out for us, but provided that we operate within a four-pillar and not a one-pillar framework, I think we should support them.