Fracking

Dear constituent,

Thank you for contacting me about fracking.

I agree with you on this important issue. Fracking is unsafe, will not help our energy security or cut bills and is opposed by local communities.

The Government has itself admitted this. It imposed a moratorium on fracking in 2019 because it said fracking was dangerous and it could not rule out unacceptable impacts on local communities. The Energy Secretary wrote in March that fracking would take a decade before it brought enough gas on stream to make a difference to UK gas supply. He also noted that no amount of UK shale gas would be enough to lower gas prices anytime soon. And as you know, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s public attitudes tracker shows that 45% of people oppose fracking, with only 17% supporting it.

It is therefore worrying that the Government is keeping the door open to shale gas by ordering a review of it and pressuring the regulator to delay the covering up of fracking wells. I do not believe this reflects a serious approach to the national interest and our energy security.

To truly deliver energy security and lower bills, I believe we need to have a green energy sprint. We need to end the Government’s effective moratorium on onshore wind – which since 2015 has effectively lost us clean power capacity equal to all our Russian gas imports over that time – and instead double our capacity by 2030. We should also double offshore wind capacity by 2035, triple solar power by 2030 and embrace tidal power.

I also agree that we need to prioritise and fund energy efficiency, which is why I support proposals for £60 billion of investment over ten years to bring all homes up to energy performance certificate band C. This would save families £400 a year on their energy bills and reduce national gas imports by up to 15%.

Finally, I agree that we need a windfall tax on the profits of oil and gas companies to help fund an immediate support package to protect families from soaring energy bills.

It is extremely disappointing that the Government’s energy security strategy failed to deliver on these measures. I can nevertheless assure you that I will continue to oppose fracking and support calls to accelerate efforts on energy efficiency and homegrown renewables.

Thank you once again for contacting me.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Dowd MP