MPs approve weakened shale regulations
16 Feb 2015
The Infrastructure Act gained Royal Assent last week, but only after regulations on shale gas development were watered down by the House of Lords and accepted by MPs.
The House of Commons had previously accepted 13 tests proposed by the Labour Party that all shale gas developments must pass before receiving planning permission. These tests included the need to monitor a site for 12 months prior to any hydraulic fracturing activity, and mandatory environmental impact assessments.
In the case of AONBs and national parks it might not be practical to guarantee that fracking will not take place under them
Energy minister Amber Rudd
However, following amendments made in the House of Lords, the need for mandatory environmental impact assessments has been removed from the final Infrastructure Act, and replaced with the need for environmental impact to simply be “taken into account” by a local planning authority when granting planning permission.
The other key area where legislation has been weakened at the final stage is the blocking of hydraulic fracturing in National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty(AONB): the final version of the Infrastructure Act simply says that fracking cannot take place in “protected areas”, and that these must be defined by the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change in secondary legislation, which must be passed no later than 31 July.
Speaking in a House of Commons debate on the Lords’ amendments prior to the Act gaining Royal Assent last Thursday, energy minister Amber Rudd admitted that the legislation could now allow some drilling activity to take place within National Parks and AONBs.
“The Government amendment does not refer to “within or under” protected areas because the meaning of this term needs to be flexible to allow proper provisions to be made in secondary legislation,” said Rudd.
“There is a strong case that sites such as World Heritage sites and the Norfolk Broads should be protected from fracking taking place under them. In other cases, that would not be so sensible. For example, in the case of areas of outstanding natural beauty and national parks, given their size and dispersion, it might not be practical to guarantee that fracking will not take place under them in all cases without unduly constraining the industry. However, that is something we need to consider in more detail, and we will do that in due course.”
Environmental campaigners accused the government of watering down the legislation at the last minute.
Speaking on Friday, Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) senior energy campaigner Nick Clack said: “The Government claimed last week to have introduced strong legal safeguards on fracking to protect the countryside and communities. Yesterday ministers undermined that claim and further eroded public confidence.
“It is both disappointing and concerning that the Government has chosen not to reinstate in legislation important controls such as the explicit requirement for an Environmental Impact Assessment, or the outright ban on fracking under National Parks and other protected areas they previously committed to. This calls into question the Government’s commitment to so-called world class fracking regulation.”
