My Lords, I welcome the statutory instrument. I listened with great interest to my noble friend Lord Judd and the noble Baroness, Lady Parminter. I declare straightaway that I have no pecuniary/financial interests. I have an interest in energy and in the area of fracking in particular because I think there has been so much misinformation put about about the process. All the sources that I quote from are independent; I do not rely on the oil and gas industry to supply me with information. If I do not agree with much that the noble Baroness said, I agree on the point that we should not rely just on the industry.
One phrase that the noble Baroness used made me smile, albeit ironically. She used the phrase “dash for gas”. Would that we were doing so! There has been no dash for gas, that is for sure. I forget for how long exactly, but one exploration well in Lancashire has been delayed for over three years. Considering the amount of experience out there, including in some quite sensitive areas, there has certainly been no dash, and there has been plenty of environmental examination.
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I was also interested in my noble friend Lord Judd’s remarks. By coincidence, I was on a cycling tour this year in the Peak District and I went down the mines he referred to. Of course, it is a wonderful area and nobody in their right mind would want to damage one of the great natural resources we have in this country. They are of inestimable value, both to those who live
near them and those who visit them for tourism. I share my noble friend’s concerns about water quality and wildlife and I do not want to place either of those at risk.
Nevertheless, I note as a matter of interest that oil has been produced in the UK for over 150 years, with production from oil shales in Scotland in 1851. In 1896 a water well was sunk during the construction of Heathfield railway station in the High Weald of East Sussex, and natural gas was discovered at 312 feet. The gas was used to light the station and the local hotel until February 1934. In 1973 the Wytch Farm oil field in East Dorset was opened in an area of outstanding natural beauty, and today it is the largest onshore oil field in western Europe. The 1979 oil crisis again accelerated onshore activity, and many of the fields operated today were discovered and developed during this period. In all, over 2,000 wells have been drilled in Britain, with more than 200 wells having been hydraulically fractured to improve their performance—so we are not talking about a new science by any means.
As for the experience in the States, the only thing I want to say is that we are not using the rather poor environmental protection that they had over there, inasmuch as that some of the fracking agents that they used were doubtful. However, the recent study by the Environmental Protection Agency—which is not a soft touch by any means—
“did not find evidence that these mechanisms have led to widespread, systemic impacts on drinking water resources in the United States”.
That study was the most comprehensive ever done, having taken five years and investigated over 38,000 wells.
That was in the US; our regulations in relation to fracking are much tougher. It is unfortunate that there is so much misinformation, in some cases deliberately put about. The worst example recently was when one of the green organisations alleged that there are carcinogenic problems with silica. Are we going to ban people from beaches next, since it is mostly sand that is used? The organisation went on to talk about acrylamide. In fact, the substance that has been used for fracking—polyacrylamide—is the same substance that has been used to bathe contact lenses. It does not strike me as a highly polluting substance.
In my view, what the Government are doing here is sensible. I think my noble friend had a slip of the tongue when he referred to 1,200 feet—in fact, it is 1,200 metres, which is more than three times greater. There is very significant protection in the statutory instrument that is proposed.
I will not repeat all the points made by the Minister about the benefits of having a source of home-grown energy. It is, however, somewhat ironic—