Shale Gas Extraction
Debate between Amy Callaghan and Jacob Rees-Mogg(2 years, 2 months ago)
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Mr Rees-Mogg
I am very grateful to my hon. Friend; that is an important and fundamental question. The answer is that we need to do the test drilling first to see whether the reserves can be achieved in the way that the 2012 report hoped, but I cannot give a firm commitment on that, because we have not done enough test drilling yet.
Amy Callaghan (East Dunbartonshire) (SNP)
To come back to the 2019 Tory party manifesto, which each Government Member stood on, it states on page 55 that a moratorium on fracking would be lifted only if
“the science shows…it can be done safely.”
A change in Tory party leadership is not a change in scientific evidence. Will the Secretary of State enlighten the House as to why the Government think they are above both logic and science?
Mr Rees-Mogg
Because all the evidence says that it can be done safely, as it is in the United States, and as the 2012 report that I have referred to many times indicated.