MIKE HEDGES AM BACK WELSH GOVERNMENT BAN ON FRACKING IN WALES.

Speaking after the Plenary Session at the Assembly, Mike Hedges said….

‘From a variety of perspectives, Fracking is a bad idea – from the perspective of Climate Change, we can produce electricity and energy from green sources without the associated risks of Fracking. We can see yet again in the case in Lancashire that the threat of Earthquakes is ever present when Fracking is taking place. I fully support the Fracking Ban in Wales and hope that the new First Minister continues with this policy. As I said in the Senedd, I do not want it in my constituency or near it, and I do not wish to impose it on any Community in Wales.’

But I really fully support the fracking ban in Wales. We can take climate change seriously and attempt to stop the world’s temperature increase, or we can support fracking. We can’t do both. Fracking: you drill down into the earth, a high-pressure water mixture is directed at the rock to release the gas inside; you send water, sand and chemicals into the rock at high pressure, and you can either do it vertically or horizontally. 353
In a world short of clean water, is fracking a good idea? In the US, the United States Environmental Protection Agency found a median of 14 chemicals for each sample it took. The most common were methanol, hydrochloric acid and hydro-treated light petroleum distillates. Water contamination has been one of the biggest environmental concerns, and where some of the most best known incidents have occurred. An investigation by the US Environmental Protection Agency concluded in 2016 that, in some cases, fracking had harmed drinking water supplies. Is that a risk we are prepared to take? 354
Earthquakes caused by hydraulic fracturing have been another big concern. While the two earthquakes in 2011 that led to the UK’s fracking moratorium were both ranked minor on the Richter scale, the US has experienced much stronger ones. Oklahoma experts have reported a thousand years’ worth of quakes in two years because of fracking there. Is this a risk we want to take with the people of Wales and with our country? They’ve got a situation in Rebecca Evans’s constituency where people have been considering fracking in that area. My constituents, as well as hers, are very much opposed to fracking taking place there. And if I don’t want it to take place in my constituency or near my constituency, I don’t want it to take place at or near anybody else’s. 355