A Greenpeace advert saying fracking will not cut energy prices was misleading because David Cameron argues otherwise, the UK advertising watchdog has ruled.
Labour peer David Lipsey complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) about the advert, which ran in the Guardian in January and claimed “experts agree – [fracking] won’t cut our energy bills”.
The ASA asked Greenpeace to provide proof of a consensus among experts.
In response the environment group sent 22 quotes from experts, including leading climate change economist Nicholas Stern, UK secretary of state for energy Ed Davey, director of the UK Energy Research Centre professor Jim Watson and three representatives from the fracking industry – including John Browne, the former chairman of shale gas company Cuadrilla.
Fracking “is not going to have material impact on price”, Browne said during his chairmanship in 2013. To conclude otherwise would be “baseless economics”, Stern said in the same year.
The ASA found Greenpeace had breached advertising standards by presenting the argument as settled. In its ruling the ASA council cited separate emails from Greenpeace that included statements from prime minister Cameron, who has said fracking will reduce energy prices.
“We understood that there was a significant division of informed opinion on the issue, demonstrated, for example, by the quotes provided by Greenpeace from the prime minister,” the ruling read.
When asked by the Guardian whether the ASA could supply other examples of experts supporting the view that prices will fall, an ASA spokeswoman said: “It was Greenpeace’s responsibility to prove that there was no division of informed opinion on the subject. Greenpeace provided evidence which showed the contrary and the example [of Cameron] used in the ruling demonstrated that there was divergence of opinion on the subject.”
The ASA ruling also noted that not all of the Greenpeace examples had “decisively stated that fracking would not reduce the cost of energy bills”. Many added the caveat that any effect would be unlikely. Thus, the ASA said, the level of certainty was not as high as Greenpeace had suggested.
Chris Smith, former Environment Agency chief and now chair of the ASA council, has recently been appointed as the head of a fracking industry-funded shale gas task force. Lipsey is a former ASA council member and sits on the economic affairs select committee, which last year called for fracking to be made a “national priority”.
Greenpeace UK energy and climate campaigner Louise Hutchins said there had been a conflict of interest on the council.
“An authority led by a fracking advocate has ruled in favour of a pro-fracking lord merely on the basis of the opinion of an avowedly pro-fracking prime minister. This decision is baseless, biased, and frankly bonkers,” she said.
The spokeswoman for the ASA said Smith had recused himself from the proceedings.
The spokeswoman denied Smith used his position to influence the decision, which she said was made independently.
The ASA ruled the advert must not appear again in its current form.
