Ed Miliband announced on Wednesday that Labour was speeding up plans to bring in a “total ban” on fracking. But how will this work and could it stop a future Reform government from fracking?
What has the energy secretary announced?
Miliband has announced that a law to ban fracking, a key promise in Labour’s 2024 manifesto, will be brought forward this autumn. Fracking – short for hydraulic fracturing – is a means of extracting gas or oil trapped in rocks deep underground. When fluid composed of water and chemicals with added sand is fired at high pressure into the rocks, this creates fissures that allow gas and oil to escape and be brought to the surface.
Miliband said he would announce in the consultation results for the future of North Sea’s energy that Labour will legislate to ban new onshore oil and gas licences to ensure no future fracking can take place.
Why is he doing this?
Miliband and the Labour government have no intention to frack so it’s to trip up a future Reform government. Currently, the energy secretary can choose to lift the fracking moratorium without a vote in parliament. If Miliband changes the law, a future Reform government would have to put it to a vote.
This could make things very tricky for Reform as it would involve persuading MPs in areas that could be fracked to vote for it, despite likely opposition from local people. Fracking is deeply unpopular because of the earthquakes, disruption and blight to the countryside it causes. Liz Truss, the former prime minister, found this when Miliband tried to bring a fracking ban bill to parliament. She could not force her MPs to vote against the bill and this was the final straw for her doomed premiership.
What is the moratorium and why was it implemented?
From 2004-10 there was early exploration of fracking in England. But in 2011, Cuadrilla drilled and fracked the Preese Hall site near Blackpool, which caused earthquakes and led the government to pause fracking pending a review.
In 2012, the Cameron-Clegg coalition government lifted the ban with new rules and environmental regulations around earthquakes, leading to huge protests as people did not want drilling in their local area. People experienced tremors and feared their air and water could be contaminated by the experimental extraction method.
After years of protest, the moratorium was reinstated in 2019 by Boris Johnson, sparked by a fracking-induced earthquake at Preston New Road in Lancashire. The government said “until compelling new evidence is provided, the government will not lift restrictions on fracking”.
In September 2022, Liz Truss lifted the moratorium but it was reinstated a month later by her successor, Rishi Sunak.
Would fracking reduce energy bills?
Pro-fracking campaigners often point to the US, which lowered its gas price by massively scaling up shale gas extraction. In the US there was very little infrastructure to liquefy and export gas, so most of the gas they extracted was sold domestically, which did lower prices. The US is also not tied to international markets as it prices its gas regionally, unlike the UK, which is completely exposed to international gas markets.
Even if the UK pricing system was similar to the US, fracking would make very little, if any, difference in pricing because Britain has a lot less shale than the US.
Would fracking work in the UK?
Probably not at scale, and not enough to sustain an industry. This is because of geology. The US has large, flat, thick shale formations that are easy to drill into and extract gas from. The UK, by contrast, has thinner, more geologically complex and heavily faulted and folded shale formations, which are more difficult to drill and pose greater threats of earthquakes, as well as lower yields.
Poland, for example, tried to move from coal to shale gas and expected a fracking boom on its large landmass, which is much less densely populated than the UK. But the industry failed because of disappointing drilling results and similar geology challenges to the UK.
Even the former CEO of Cuadrilla Chris Cornelius has said it would not work in the UK. “No sensible investors” would take the risk of embarking on large projects here, he said. “It’s very challenging geology compared with North America.”
Richard Davies, a petroleum geologist at Newcastle University, said: “Wells drilled in the US produce modest volumes of gas. Therefore you need hundreds drilled each year to make a dent on our reliance on imported gas.”
Which constituencies are affected?
Research by Friends of the Earth has found that 187 constituencies could be affected by fracking as they sit above shale gas. Of these constituencies, 141 are existing Labour seats, 25 are Conservative, 15 are held by the Lib Dems and two by Reform, with swathes of Scotland, the north of England, the Midlands and the south at risk.
Miliband plans to exploit this and will send volunteers on a countrywide campaign called “Send the frackers packing” to mobilise activists and local people to oppose fracking and raise awareness of the risks of electing a pro-fracking government.
