Labour Leadership Frontrunner Calls for a Stop to Shale Gas

One of the heavy favourites for the vacant Labour leadership position, Andy Burnham, has called for a moratorium on the extraction of shale gas and oil via the practice of hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking. Burnham, who is the current shadow health secretary, argued that a temporary ban should be placed on fracking until its effects and potential dangers were better qualified and documented.

The Rise and Fall of Fracking?

It doesn’t seem that long ago that fracking was being touted as the cure-all to all of our energy woes. Outspoken proponents of the practice such as the self-proclaimed "Frackmaster" Chris Faulkner has hailed it as the energy of the future. George Osborne, current Chancellor the Exchequer, has claimed it will create a slurry of new jobs, as well as reducing dependence on imports from countries such as Russia, lowering energy bills and strengthening the UK economy as a whole. Even the President of the United States, Barack Obama, said that fracking could offer a "bridge" between fossil fuels and renewables.

However, over the course of the last 12 to 18 months, fracking has come under heavy fire. Opponents of the practice have claimed that it could be responsible for earthquakes in the neighbouring areas, citing statistics from states such as Oklahoma, Ohio and Texas, which have seen an upturn in the number of tremors and earthquakes since the inception of the practice.

Furthermore, it has the potential to infiltrate and pollute water supplies, potentially poisoning whole communities or leaving them without a reliable water source. These doubts and worries have led Scotland to place a moratorium on fracking, a policy which Burnham supports and wants the rest of the UK to follow as well.

Suspension Pending Investigation

Primary among the concerns from the potential leadership candidate was our ignorance in the long-term effects of the practice. “I was literally left open-mouthed two years ago when I realised there were about nine licences all over my constituency. Some of them are moving forward,” warned Burnham. “These things just seem to be handed out like confetti. That made me really focus on the issue. In my area, we are riddled with mine shafts as a former mining area. Where is the evidence that it is safe to come and frack a place like this? No fracking should go ahead until we have much clearer evidence on the environmental impact.”

As well as worrying about how fracking could upset the atmosphere and the immediate residents who could be affected by it, Burnham also stated that he was concerned by how decisions about localised fracking are being wrestled away from those most closely affected.

“How can we justify in this day and age allowing a multinational to frack a local community without their say so? The next step, beyond the moratorium, would be to give local people a much bigger say in whether or not it can proceed,” explained Burnham. However, he did qualify that if a community collectively decided they were in favour, he would not stand in their way: “If an organisation could convince a local community that in the end, the deal they were putting on the table was beneficial, then that is fine. But it can’t be fine without proper consultation.”

Burnham will have done his leadership election chances no harm amongst the more liberally-minded constituents. Whether that will be enough to see him replace Ed Miliband as the driving force behind the Labour Party, remains to be seen.