Between a frack and a hard place

In Britain, strapped-for-cash local councils are being heavily bribed by the government to accept fracking – a hard choice for authorities trying to eke out constantly shrinking budgets. Meanwhile, in America the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has long lost the fight to prevent fracking but keeps up a constant battle to control its worst effects. Last week it issued a new rule requiring oil and gas fracking firms to report how much polluted wastewater and fracking fluids they dump in the ocean, and what chemicals it contains. Over half the extraction companies in the state are routinely dumping their waste in the sea.

The California Coastal Commission is concerned that these dumped fracking fluids may be affecting marine environments. Officials were slow to get off the mark but the State Governor, Jerry Brown, signed a new law last year to regulate hydraulic fracturing on land, compelling firms to report the chemicals they pump underground. In most states, such information is considered “proprietary information” and is often kept secret by drilling firms.

In England and Scotland, we will have a big fight ahead if (or when) desperate councils take the money and accept fracking. The British Isles is only a tiny fraction of the size of America, and the environmental impact of fracking technology with be proportionately far greater.