Energy: Fracking

Lord Howell of Guildford Excerpts

Tuesday 30th July 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, the noble Baroness will be fully aware that community engagement is the prime source from where we will get opinions for and against fracking and wind farms. On both issues the Government are working very hard and very closely with operators, developers and communities.

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

My Lords, does the Minister accept that it could be a mistake to discuss fracking in terms of the whole of the United Kingdom in one go? Obviously, in beautiful rural areas there are worries not just about drilling and fracking, which I think are exaggerated, but about trucks, deliveries, roads and disturbance, which are quite justified. However, there are large, uninhabited and desolate areas, certainly in parts of the north-east, where there is plenty of room for fracking, well away from anybody’s residence, and where it could be conducted without any threat to the rural environment. Does the Minister agree that a distinction should be made between one area and another rather than lumping them together, and that if we can push ahead with this kind of gas production, it will take us fast away from coal burning, which is increasing at the moment because of the delays in authorising gas production that the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, talked about a moment ago?