Fracking News 8-14 August 2016

Wed 8:22 pm +00:00, 10 Aug 2016

posted by Gordon

What’s happening this week? 8-14 August 2016

By Ruth Hayhurst on August 9, 2016

whats happening this week

Deadlines, meetings, information stalls and fundraisers this week in DrillOrDrop’s round up of events about fracking, onshore oil and gas and the campaigners around them.

Please let us know (click here) if any of these details are incorrect or if other events should be included. Event listings for the rest of August and later in the year here

Tuesday 9 August 2016

Frack Free Yeovil meeting, 7pm, Meadow Road, Yeovil. Details for venue and meeting

Wednesday 10 August 2016

9am deadline for applications to Campaign Bootcamp, described as “Hogwarts for campaigners”. Details and application

Thursday 11 August 2016

Keep Wiltshire Frack Free information stall at the Gaunts House Summer Gathering in Wimborne, Dorset. Details

Friday 12 August 2016

Keep Wiltshire Frack Free information stall at the Gaunts House Summer Gathering in Wimborne, Dorset. Details

Saturday 13 August 2016

Frack Free Mansfield leafleting and stall, 11am-2pm, Stockwell Gate (near 4 Seasons Centre entrance), Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. Details

A voice for Leith Hill. Family picnic Day, 12pm-4pm, Leith Hill Place, Mole Valley, Surrey. Details

Frack Off This is not a drill! Anti-fracking fundraiser, talks, debates, raffle, film screening, music, speeches, performances, 11am-11pm, Hive Dalston, 260-268 Kingsland Road, London E8 4DG. Details

Keep Wiltshire Frack Free information stall at the Gaunts House Summer Gathering in Wimborne, Dorset. Details

Sunday 14 August 2016

Sheffield Against Fracking information stall, 11.30am-5pm, Lowedges Festival, Greenhill Park, Gresley Road, Sheffield S8 7HL. Details

Sheffield Against Fracking information stall at South Yorkshire Festival, 12 noon-5pm, Wortley Hall, Wortley, Sheffield S35 7DB

Keep Wiltshire Frack Free information stall at the Gaunts House Summer Gathering in Wimborne, Dorset. Details

Please let us know (click here) if any of these dates are incorrect or if events are missing. Event listings for the rest of August and later in the year here

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Source: https://drillordrop.com/2016/08/09/whats-happening-this-week-8-14-august-2016/

Other News:

First shipment of fracked shale gas set to arrive in Scotland

10 August 2016

Ineos Grangemouth

The Grangemouth plant employs more than 1,300 people

The first shipment of shale gas produced by fracking is expected to arrive in Scotland in September.

One of a fleet of “Dragon-class” ships is due to arrive with the cargo at the Ineos petrochemical plant in Grangemouth.

Ineos says it has invested more than £1bn in the facility since it acquired the site in 2005.

The company has constructed the biggest shale gas storage tank in Scotland ahead of the arrival.

Chemical giant Ineos blasts SNP’s “absurd” fracking stance

$INEOS boss Jim Ratcliffe with one of the giant purpose-built Ineos ships that will transport fracked gas from America to Scotland$

INEOS boss Jim Ratcliffe with one of the giant purpose-built Ineos ships that will transport fracked gas from America to Scotland

August 10, 2016 by Daniel Sanderson, Scottish Political Correspondent / @DanSandersonHT

THE firm that wants to set up a fracking industry in Scotland has blasted the SNP’s position on the gas extraction technique as “absurd” and said it is costing jobs and investment.

Ineos, the petrochemical giant, is to begin shipping fracked shale gas from the east cost of America to its Grangemouth plant on purpose-built ships from next month.

The company has previously expressed support for the Scottish Government’s policy of carrying out new studies before taking an “evidence led” decision over whether to allow fracking, as it is confident the research will back up previous experts in concluding it can be carried out safely with little environmental risk.

However, the company has apparently lost patience with the process, with a decision not expected to be taken until next year and a public consultation over fracking, which sees water, sand and chemicals pumped underground to fracture rock and release gas, yet to begin.

Martyn McLaughlin: Time to get facts on fracking out in the open

$Debate on fracking has its ardent backers on both sides but the dearth of expert reports has curtailed a reasoned public dialogue. Picture: Michael Gillen$

Debate on fracking has its ardent backers on both sides but the dearth of expert reports has curtailed a reasoned public dialogue. Picture: Michael Gillen

Two sides are having their say but the rest of us lack the details we were promised, writes Martyn McLaughlin

If there is one policy area that has rivalled constitutional matters for emotive and ill-tempered debate in recent years, it is fracking. On one side, the extraction technique is regarded as a transformational economic lifeline; on the other, its opponents deem it an environmentally ruinous folly which, if approved, would destroy Scotland’s low carbon aspirations. The middle ground, where reasoned argument might be found flourishing just below the surface, is a largely untilled land.

The confirmation that Ineos expects the first shipments of shale gas to arrive at its Grangemouth petrochemical complex over the next month should spark a more enlightened discussion than has taken place to date, though it also risks obscuring it.

The company will not be breaking Scottish soil to source its shale gas ethane. Instead, it will command an eight-strong fleet of vast supertankers to transport the shipments from western Pennsylvania across the Atlantic and into the Forth. Each vessel has the capacity to carry up to 27,500 cubic metres of liquefied ethane. Cumulatively, Ineos say, its Dragon Class fleet will transport approximately 800,000 tonnes of ethane annually from the US to Grangemouth and Ineos’s ethylene cracker facility in the Norwegian port of Rafnes.

Campaigners at Chester anti-fracking camp prepare to be evicted

9 Aug 2016 By David Holmes

Small encampment at Bridge Trafford given notice that eviction proceedings are being activated

A ‘Hoot and Toot’ awareness event opposite the anti-fracking protest camp at Bridge Trafford close to a potential fracking site.

Anti-fracking campaigners who set up a protest camp near Chester understand they are going to be evicted.

The activists established a small encampment on privately-owned land at the side of the A56 Warrington Road, Bridge Trafford, not far from The Chester Fields pub and restaurant.

This was after they discovered Star Energy Ltd, owned by IGas, had bought a field at Bridge Trafford for £141,000.

The anti-fracking camp by the A56 at Bridge Trafford.

And the company also bought an option on a nearby field to the south of Warrington Road in Barrow, owned by David William Pym.

The energy firm says any decision over gas exploration – and whether that would be for coal bed methane or shale gas – will come down to the results of seismic testing.

Activists set up the latest protest camp after a previous encampment at Duttons Lane, Upton, was cleared by bailiffs on January 12 but the company abandoned its test drill plans just three weeks later.

Ant-fracking activists outside Mickle Trafford Village Hall

Dr Steven Peers, who is living at the Bridge Trafford site, said: “We have held the Bridge Trafford Community Protection camp for six months knowing that Star Energy owned by IGas had been purchasing land in the Chester area for an extensive programme of fracking.

“The industry obviously had the heads up months ago that their plans for fracking would be fast-tracked by the government. In light of the damage that fracking has done in America, Australia and New Zealand, this disastrous industry cannot be allowed to get a foot hold in this country.

“The anti-fracking community will continue to highlight the dangers of hydraulic fracturing despite the upcoming eviction proceedings for the Bridge Trafford site. The potential risk to the water supply of Chester is not worth the gamble that the government is taking with our children’s future and health.”

$Anti-fracking campaigners at the site in Bridge Trafford$ Anti-fracking campaigners at the potential fracking site in Bridge Trafford

In the last few days it has been revealed that the government is considering paying residents affected by fracking from the proceeds of shale gas projects.

A shale wealth fund was unveiled in 2014 to set aside up to 10% of the tax proceeds from fracking to benefit communities in the UK hosting wells.

Prime minister Theresa May is now considering paying the money directly to individual households instead of councils and local trusts.

Dr Peers responded that it was ‘short-term gain’ with no consideration of the health consequences. He added: “Even if a council refuses permission, the government is intent on pushing through these schemes regardless of health and safety. It’s extremely worrying.”

Source: http://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/news/chester-cheshire-news/campaigners-chester-anti-fracking-camp-11723957