On 21st March the Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, will host a summit with a view to making Manchester one of the greenest cities in Europe. (1) However, four years ago Greater Manchester looked set for a different accolade as fracking company IGas explored for shale gas at Barton Moss, Salford.
Frack Free Greater Manchester is organizing a fringe event in the evening to tell the story of the four years of campaigning against fracking, and how activists have, so far, prevented fracking in the UK.
The meeting will start at 7PM on Wednesday 21st March and will take place at the Central Methodist Hall on Oldham Street. The confirmed speakers are:
Helena Coates from Frack Free Greater Manchester
Eddie Thornton from the Kirby Misperton Protection Camp
Councillor Maureen Mills from Frack Free Lancashire
There is a facebook event for the meeting (2).
IGas left Barton Moss in 2014. In 2016 they abandoned plans to explore for shale gas in Upton, Cheshire (3), and then in January this Ellesmere Port threw out plans for exploration there. In Yorkshire equipment has been removed from a proposed site at Kirby Misperton, near Pickering (4), by Third Energy, whose chairman is a former chief executive of failed outsourcing firm Carillion, after the government set more stringent financial tests on fracking companies (5). In Lancashire, Cuadrilla Resources have yet to extract any gas from their site at Little Plumpton, near Blackpool.
Martin Porter from the Frack Free Greater Manchester said “Fracking is a threat to our countryside, our water and our climate. But the story of ordinary people have stood up to one of the most polluting industries in the world is an inspiring one that everybody should hear. The last four years have been a disaster for the fracking industry. Shale gas was always the last gasp of the fossil fuel dinosaurs, but now it seems they’ve just about expired. Four years after Barton Moss, not a single gram of fracked gas has been produced. We need an alternative, and the Green Summit is a chance to build a better energy industry, one that will bring real jobs, but which won’t come at the cost of our landscape, our health or our planet.”
ENDS
1. https://www.greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/info/20005/green_city_region/117/green_summit/1
2. https://www.facebook.com/events/1765933370382191/
3. https://drillordrop.com/2016/02/05/breaking-igas-pulls-out-of-chester/
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