Bribes and bullying are no way of dealing with genuine anxieties about a novel process
The government’s approach to the critics of fracking has been a bit like the 17th-century royalist hero Prince Rupert’s approach to the parliamentarians during the English civil war. The faster you charge at your enemies, the further they will run. It was a tactic that turned out badly for Prince Rupert, as it did too for David Cameron and George Osborne last night, when – in the face of rebellion – the government made an 11th-hour embrace of a bundle of opposition amendments, tightening up the detailed regulations.
The faster they insist on pressing ahead with shale gas extraction – on Monday we reported that the chancellor had written to cabinet colleagues instructing them to fast-track fracking as a “personal priority” – the more opponents they have created, including several Tories such as the former environment secretary, Caroline Spelman. On Monday, MPs on the environmental audit committee pointed out the weaknesses of a regulatory regime that, in England alone, involves three government departments and several agencies, with at least as many more in the devolved administrations. Labour pushed for a single fracking permit, to give the Environment Agency an overarching regulatory role. Such details, as well as concessions to protect national parks and the water supply are important. But serious critics will continue to demand a moratorium so that outstanding questions can be considered: most fundamentally, the consequences for the UK’s commitment to cutting emissions and the wider implications for climate change.