The new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunakannounced this Wednesday that it will once again prohibit the extraction of hydrocarbons by hydraulic fracturing (fracking), a veto that his predecessor at the head of the Government, Liz Truss, had lifted.
(Also: British government postpones the presentation of its new fiscal plan for November)
In his first control session of the Executive in Parliament as Prime Minister, Sunak assured that will keep in this field the promises of the electoral program with which his party colleague Boris Johnson won the last general election, in 2019, which defended a moratorium on all hydraulic fracturing projects.
(Also read: The billionaire wife of Rishi Sunak who will be the first lady of the United Kingdom)
A spokesman for Downing Street, his official office, later confirmed that the prime minister will reintroduce that moratorium.
The moratorium on hydraulic fracturing was declared in 2019 by the Conservative Executive due to the risk of seismic shocks, but Truss decided to build it in England “to reinforce energy security”after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which affected the supply of hydrocarbons in Europe.
(We recommend: Stability and unity: the challenges that Rishi Sunak will face as head of the United Kingdom)
Truss assured that drilling would only start in areas where the approval of local residents was obtained. Precisely, a vote on those Truss energy plans was one of the last triggers of the fall of his Executive.
The night before she was forced to resign, a revolt of dozens of “Tory” deputies who did not want to support the return of the fracking sowed chaos in the House of Commons, where some deputies accused those responsible for Conservative parliamentary discipline of “harassment”.
(See also: Rishi Sunak: who is the billionaire and the first Hindu to rule the UK)
We want to leave our children an environment in a better state.
The Conservative program for the 2019 elections stated that the ban on hydraulic fracturing was not to be lifted until “the science shows categorically that it can be done safely”. The Downing Street spokesman confirmed shortly after that the new prime minister wants to respect this point.
This summer, during his unsuccessful campaign to succeed Johnson, Sunak had declared in favor of hydraulic fracturing “if local communities support” the technology.
Truss’s lifting of the moratorium provoked the anger and concern of environmentalists, who hydraulic fracturing causes earthquakes and pollution risk and provides little additional energy supply.
(Also: Rishi Sunak, richer than King Charles: this is the fortune of the new ‘premier’)
Greenpeace welcomed the shift announced on Wednesday and “called on Sunak to also stop granting new oil and gas exploration licences.”
During his 49 days in office, Truss also announced that he wanted to review the UK’s path to carbon neutrality by 2050 and promised a policy of ‘post-Brexit’ deregulation with the possible abolition of hundreds of environmental protection laws.
Sunak stressed to British MPs its “commitment” to respect the agreements of the UN climate conference COP26, held last year in the Scottish city of Glasgow. “We want to leave our children with a better environment,” she said.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from EFE and AFP
Other international news:
– Russian nuclear deterrent forces carry out tests before possible threat
– Venezuela: outrage over the case of a grandfather who sexually abused his 6 granddaughters
– Iran: they shoot at civilians in the middle of a tribute to the young Mahsa Amini
#Rishi #Sunak #ban #fracking