good speaker to ask the Secretary of State for business energy and Industrial strategy
to make a statement regarding the lifting of the moratorium on Shale gas extraction
thank you Mr Speaker and what a pleasure it is to be continuing on this uh theme and indeed the the
the the the the honorable lady is right to be saying to me that I need to find the right
page because I am I am having some difficulty in finding the right page uh immediately um
don't worry um
is there another copy we can Center
I've got it on a secretary of state Mr Speaker I'm very grateful to the right honorable gentleman for
uh bringing forward his urgent question and I'm glad to be able to announce that the moratorium
on extraction of shale gas is being lifted and a statement has been laid before the house to
do this as I was setting out in the previous urgent question it is important that we use all
available sources of fuel within this country it is more environmentally friendly if you use
our own sources of fuel rather than to extract them from other countries and transport them here
at Great costs both financially and in terms of carbon it is something therefore that we need to
visit and we need to revisit the seismic limits to ensure that Shale gas extraction can be done
in an effective and efficient way Mr Speaker this is obviously a case of the dog ate my homework and
who uh and and be partly surprising let's start by taking his excuse for lifting the fracking ban Mr
Speaker that it will make a difference the energy bills crisis it won't because gas is sold on the
international market the current Chancellor the current Chancellor said so in February of this
year and I quote no amount of shale gas would be enough to the to lower the European price of gas
even Mr Speaker the founder of quadrilla said the secretary of state is wrong in an article
published yesterday so first why doesn't he admit the truth that anyone who knows anything about
this subject says his claim that fracking will cut bills is nonsense next let's come to safety
the 2019 Manifesto on which he and every member of the party opposite stood said this said this
Mr Speaker we will not support fracking unless the science shows categorically that it can be done
safely they are lifting the ban but they can't Supply the evidence and the British Geological
Survey published today certainly doesn't do it so in the absence of the evidence his approach is to
change the safety limits he says in his written statement lay before this house tolerating a
higher degree of risk and disturbance appears to us to be in the National interest I look forward
to him and his colleagues explaining his Charter for earthquakes to the people of Lancashire
Yorkshire the Midlands Sussex Dorset and indeed Somerset who will be part of his dangerous
experiment let me tell the party opposite we will hang this broken promise round their necks
in every part of the country between now and the next general election the conservative Manifesto
also said having listened to local Community we have ruled out changes to the planning system
does he stand by that promise and how will he abide by the prime minister's commitment to
local consent the truth is he doesn't get this that you can't escape a fossil fuels crisis by
doubling down on fossil fuels Renewables are today nine times cheaper than gas the only way to cut
energy bills to have energy security is with zero carbon homegrown power including onshore wind and
solar which his wing of the conservative party hate and he continues to block for communities
in every part of our country today's shows they can never trust a word this government
says again and he is shown he is willing to break his promises to support dangerous Fringe
ideas that put the interest of fossil fuel companies above that of the British people
nice thing Mr Speaker there was plenty of energy in that but it was I'm afraid uh more Sound and
Fury that signifies nothing we know that Shale gas is safe it's safe in the United States and
has been one of the biggest contributors and has been one of the biggest contributors to the
decline in carbon emissions in the United States of any activity that has gone on in that country