Well, that didn’t take long. Liz Truss has wasted no time in making another U-turn on energy policy and reversed the previous Conservative ban on fracking as part of her long term planning for energy security.
The ban on fracking was put in place under Boris Johnson’s premiership, due to concerns that fracking could lead to minor earthquakes, after a report by the Oil and Gas Authority.
Despite no new evidence that fracking is safe – and a 2019 Tory manifesto stating that there would be no new fracking “unless the science shows categorically that it can be done safely” – Truss’s announcement confirms that nothing is off the table in her plan to ensure that “the UK is a net energy exporter by 2040.”
However, the PM promised that no fracking would take place unless it received support from local communities.
But Truss might face objections from her own party, if not her own front bench. For the Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, wrote in the Mail on Sunday back in March that fracking “would come at a high cost for communities and our precious countryside.”
“Even if we lifted the fracking moratorium tomorrow, it would take up to a decade to extract sufficient volumes,” Kwarteng added.
Kwarteng’s timeline is also a glaring contrast from the one provided by the PM today who suggested we would see the benefits in six months. It looks like a case of needs must.
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