Scotland Just Banned Fracking Forever
In one fell swoop, Scotland banned fracking — permanently — when parliament narrowly voted in favor of cementing the country’s temporary moratorium on the controversial practice.
With the original intention of conducting full health and environmental impact assessments before continuing with all unconventional oil and gas extraction — including fracking — Scotland implemented a temporary halt to all such procedures in January 2015.
Members of the ruling Scottish National Party abstained from the vote, which passed 32 to 29, though SNP Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse claimed the government remains “deeply sceptical” of fracking and none would be allowed to proceed unless distinct evidence proved the practice ‘causes no harm,’ the Guardian reported.
Scottish Labour Party environment spokesperson, Claudia Beamish, said following the vote,
The SNP government must now clarify whether or not they will respect the will of parliament and introduce an outright ban on fracking. It would be outrageous for this important vote to be ignored.
While ignoring the will of lawmakers could potentiate serious divisions — and, as the Guardian noted, represents a “significant defeat” for the new parliament — SNP has no explicit obligation to follow the non-binding vote.
“There is no doubt about the science,” Beamish continued, “to meet our climate change goals and protect our environment we need to develop low carbon sources of energy, not another fossil fuel. Labour’s position is clear: no ifs, no buts, no fracking.”
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1470694951173-5'); });
//tags-cdn.deployads.com/a/activistpost.com.js
(deployads = window.deployads || ).push({});