Stuc a' Chroin and Ben Vorich

Stuc a' Chroin and Ben Vorich

Tuesday 17 March 2015

Ineos, fracking and FoE

Courtesy BBC website

Ineos, which has begun a community consultation process to try to get support for fracking, said that it promised to drink "a lot of tea in a lot of village halls" to try to win the argument [over fracking].

Whatever your own position on the fracking debate, I'm sure the irony of the comment from Friends of the Earth won't be lost on you: "Ineos", said Friends of the Earth, had the budget for "a long and dirty fight" while community and campaign groups could only fight their corner "on a shoestring".

Not that the industry which FoE support, namely wind, would dream of using their financial clout to fund long and dirty fights. Perish the thought.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gibson, I thought you might find this page from FOE's site 'interesting': http://www.foe.co.uk/blog/speaking-wind-power-does-it-work

I particularly liked the "... the reality is that the majority of people support renewable energy, including wind power – even when turbines are planned near their homes" quote. Really? Is there hard evidence for that confident assertion? My impression is that turbines are primarily being sited nowhere near to where "the majority of people" have their homes, so the claim lies somewhere on the scale between misleading and completely dishonest.

Alan Sloman said...

Hi Gibson
I'm having a discussion at the moment over at my place where I've given free rein to a chap who is local to the Caplich wind farm in Sutherland and supports it very strongly. It appears he isn't the usual wind farm stooge and is entirely genuine.
He appears to be strongly for it purely on economic grounds - he thinks that that the two year construction period will bring welcome jobs to the area. He also thinks that most tourists won't be put off by the turbines from going there either.
I'm having a ponder about it at the moment and will probably get back to him in a day or so's time.

Your point about FoE being hypocritical is spot on. But you could add Greenpeace, WWF and very often the RSPB as well.

afootinthehills said...

Hi Dave

I find it inconceivable that anyone would support turbines near their homes and if they do I suspect they have no idea what they're letting themselves in for in terms of noise etc. In any case what does 'near' mean in this context?

Thanks for the link, although I suspect that I will be very depressed after reading what they have to say.

afootinthehills said...

Hello Alan

As you say, Greenpeace and the others can be included. I've had a look at the discussion on your blog re Caplich and am wondering whether to add my view, given that you already know what that will be.