Bravo Scotland to scare away Ineos from CBM frac’ing, rendering your drinking water too dangerous to use to flush toilets, never mind bathe in or drink! Companies know healthy communities cannot be divided & conquered with their lies & bribes.

CBM = Coalbed Methane, Natural Gas from Coal (NGC), Coal Seam Gas (CSG). CBM’s terrible impacts are now well known, so companies, gov’ts and regulators like to change its name to con communities into accepting it.

To read some CBM history, science and frac’ing horror shit shows, read Andrew Nikiforuk’s Slick Water.

Andrew Nikiforuk honoured with USA National Science in Society Award for Slick Water. “NASW’s Science in Society Journalism Awards honor and encourage outstanding investigative and interpretive reporting about the sciences and their impact for good and ill.”

Australian Petroleum Association: Coal seam damage to water inevitable by The Sydney Morning Herald, August 3, 2011.

The coal seam gas industry has conceded that extraction will inevitably contaminate aquifers. “Drilling will, to varying degrees, impact on adjoining aquifers,” said the spokesman, Ross Dunn. “The intent of saying that is to make it clear that we have never shied away from the fact that there will be impacts on aquifers,” Mr Dunn said.

Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP): Coal bed methane operations contaminate water resources Advertisment by CAPP in The Calgary Herald, August 28, 2014

Yet CAPP’s Alex Ferguson says many worries about water quality are based on past operations involving coal-bed methane — shallow deposits in closer proximity to groundwater. These did occasionally contaminate water resources, he says. In some of the more infamous instances, affected landowners could light their well water on fire. Alex Ferguson was appointed Commissioner and CEO of the BC Oil and Gas Commission from 2007-2011.

Ineos admits defeat on Airth coalbed methane planning application Press Release by Friends of the Earth Scotland, Mar 14, 2020

INEOS is withdrawing its planning application for unconventional gas extraction at Airth. The petrochemical giant’s decision comes 5 months after the Scottish Government confirmed its position of no support for fracking.

The planning application for commercial coalbed methane development near Falkirk went to public inquiry in 2014 and a final decision on the appeal was stalled due to the Scottish Government’s moratorium on unconventional gas, first put in place in 2015, and upheld on an indefinite basis last year.

INEOS’s decision to withdraw was revealed in correspondence to the Department for Planning and Environmental Appeals, which is handling the application, on Friday afternoon (13.03.2020). Friends of the Earth Scotland is a party to the appeal, having submitted expert witness evidence at the original inquiry.

Recent correspondence with the Department for Planning and Environmental Appeals suggested that INEOS intended to push ahead with its application, despite the Scottish Government’s position of no support for unconventional oil and gas, and indicated that the public inquiry would be reopened, in order to move to a final decision on the appeals, with the prospect of an extended and expensive process for parties and the public purse.

Friends of the Earth Scotland Head of Campaigns Mary Church commented,

“It is great news that INEOS has finally admitted defeat and are walking away from this dirty development. This is a real victory for the people across Scotland who campaigned for the moratorium against fracking, and particularly for the community at Airth who have been fighting this coalbed methane project since 2012. It’s a scandal that this climate wrecking project has been hanging over the community for so long given that they have opposed it since day one.

“The climate emergency means there is simply no excuse for any new fossil fuel developments. Following this welcome news, INEOS and the Scottish Government should now turn their focus to developing a credible and just transition plan for the plants at Grangemouth, which are amongst the biggest climate polluters and plastic producers in the UK.”


Notes to Editors

1. INEOS’s letter to the DPEA confirming that it is withdrawing its appeal for coalbed methane development at Airth is available at: https://theferret.scot/. Recent correspondence, including the DPEA’s proposal to reopen the public inquiry into appeals PPA-240-2032 and PPA-390-2029 is available at: https://www.dpea.scotland.gov.uk/CaseDetails.aspx?ID=94326

2. Communities have criticised the firm for trying to resuscitate their plans for coalbed methane extraction near Falkirk. (18/2/20) https://theferret.scot/ineos-underground-gas-scotland/

3. The Scottish Government announced a final position of ‘no support’ for fracking in October 2019. The decision came almost 5 years after the moratorium was first put in place and on the second anniversary of a statement to Parliament in October 2017 when Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse announced an ‘effective ban’ on the industry. The Energy Minister confirmed in Parliament that the Government’s position will be upheld by policy levers rather than the legislative ban that frontline communities and campaigners have long called for.
https://foe.scot/press-release/scottish-government-confirm-no-support-for-fracking/

4. Friends of the Earth Scotland is
* Scotland’s leading environmental campaigning organisation
* An independent Scottish charity with a network of thousands of supporters and active local groups across Scotland
* Part of the largest grassroots environmental network in the world, uniting over 2 million supporters, 75 national member groups, and some 5,000 local activist groups.

Refer also to:

Typical: Energy group Ineos files for judicial review of Scotland’s frac ban. But Scotland hasn’t legislated a ban yet, they only said they will ban it

Scotland Frac Consultation: Nearly 90% of respondents want frac ban. 95% agreed fracking poses “too many risks relating to pollution of the earth, water and air, and increased seismic activity”, only 4% disagreed

Frac fraud for Scotland? Is University of Edinburgh’s new test to check for shallow groundwater contamination from unconventional gas development, ie fracking, a set-up to blame nature when industry’s biogenic gases migrate into Scottish water wells?

One Year Anniversary for Scotland’s Frac Moratorium: Case against fracking ‘stronger now than ever’

Frac Trickery & Loopholes in Scotland: Thousands joined hands in stand against test drilling announced by govt one day after govt announced moratorium

Scotland widens fracking moratorium

Scotland: Fracking warnings in Midlothian, fracking disturbs 8-11 times more land area than conventional drilling

Fracking Coalbed Methane in Scotland: Dart ‘desperate’ to revive Airth plan

Expert visits Holyrood Scotland to highlight risks of ‘fracking’

2013: Shale gas fracking ‘worth £5bn to Scotland’

2013: French coalbed methane drilling presents risks even without fracking: joint study published by France’s national geological & environmental agencies

2013; Drillers Silence Fracking Claims With Sealed Settlements

2003: CBM not risk-free; Excellent map showing CBM potential in BC, Canada

1994: Source and Migration Pathways of Natural Gas in Near-Surface Ground Water Beneath the Animas River Valley, Colorado and New Mexico by Chafin, Daniel, T., USGS Water Resources Investigations Report 94-4006

Man made migration pathways probably introduced most near surface gas to the study area … 

Gas well annuli are more important than natural fractures for the upward migration of gas.

1993: Foul Water Leads to Court Methane Contamination from CBM

In a two-year study, USGS scientists found methane gas in one-third of water wells inspected and concluded that oil and gas drilling is the main source of contamination of the shallow aquifers in the Animas River Valley.

…the BLM’s reaction reflects a long-standing refusal to trust evidence linking rising numbers of methane-contaminated private wells with the gas boom. …the report shows that “the industry isn’t anywhere near as competent in preventing that kind of contamination as they have led everyone -including regulators – to believe.” 

Based in part on the USGS report, lawyers representing hundreds of area residents filed a class-action lawsuit Feb. 11 charging four oil companies – Amoco Production Company, Meridian Oil Inc., Southland Royalty Company, and Phillips Petroleum – with recklessness and deliberate disregard for the safety of local residents. The suit says the four oil companies ignored their tests, which showed that methane from their deep wells was polluting shallow aquifers, and asks for both actual and punitive damages.


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