Fracking gets even nastier

David Cameron’s love-affair with fracking reached a new level of passion when the industry’s plan to to drill under our homes was rubber-stamped by the House of Lords – but even worse was to come. At the last moment, the proposal was updated to allow fracking firms to pump “any substance” under people’s homes and property — and leave it there. Never mind if it’s toxic or even radioactive – the underneath of people’s homes has suddenly become the approved dumping-ground for muck that nobody else wants to handle.

This makes a mockery of Cameron’s claim that UK fracking regulations are some of the most stringent in the world. Far from being stringent, they are an open ticket for frackers to dump what they like, where they like, while they themselves walk away dusting their hands, free of any responsibility. Click on this link, where a petition may still be running.

If in any doubt about the toxicity of fracking wast, consider this. As long ago as April 2009, cattle were found dead near a drill site in Louisiana. Fracking fluid had leaked from the well pad and run into an adjacent pasture, and killed all of them. Have no illusions – the law that Cameron has just rushed through is highly dangerous.