UK court rules against government policy on fracking
A top court in Britain has ruled against the government’s controversial pursuit of fracking operations, which is excavation of oil and gas under huge pressure, saying a series of new planning guidelines had unlawfully failed to consider latest scientific and environmental aspects of the issue.
The environmental campaign group Talk Fracking said on Wednesday about its legal battle against fracking that UK’s high court had found the government’s new planning guidance on the issue to be unlawful.
A senior justice in the court ruled that the government had failed to carry out a lawful consultation on fracking and had unlawfully failed to consider scientific developments in the field.
Talk Fracking’s Claire Stephenson said the campaign group was “delighted that the court has agreed in part with our arguments that the government’s policy on fracking is unlawful”.
At the heart of the legal case was a series of planning guidelines published by the government in the summer which recommended fracking be continued and said authorities should “facilitate” exploration and extraction oil and gas onshore.
Activists have argued that Britain’s pursuit of fracking, a method criticized for its use of high volumes of water under immense pressure , would seriously harm the environment and put the lives of the local community at risk.
Environmental campaigners in the UK have also argued that fracking operations would be a violation of the country’s commitments under international agreements, which stipulates that governments should refrain from funding and implementing projects that increase greenhouse gas emissions.
The UK government has mostly ignored calls for halting a current fracking project in Blackpool, in northwest England, where the locals have even dared going to prison for protests against the operation.
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