Anti-frackers welcome Lancashire site shutdown

'The site was the focus of around eighteen months of near-daily protests involving many Friends.'

Quaker anti-fracking campaigners have welcomed a decision to plug and abandon a controversial Lancashire fracking site.

The Oil & Gas Authority (OGA) has ordered Cuadrilla’s parent company AJ Lucas to take the action at the Preston New Road (PNR) site near Blackpool. The site was the focus of around eighteen months of near-daily protests involving many Friends and other campaigners before the operation was closed in 2019.

The chair of the Preston New Road Action Group, which includes Quakers, said they had ‘mixed feelings’: ‘It’s good news that they are going to close the well, but within the statement they issued, there is some reference to the fact that they might be open to reuse the sites.

‘I would prefer that the site was restored straight away. According to the planning commission, the site is to be restored in 2023, so it might take a while to do that.’

The government imposed a ban on fracking in November 2019 after reports found that it carries a significant risk of earthquakes. Members of Quaker Peace & Social Witness tweeted at the time that the government U-turn was ‘amazing news’ and said it was ‘all thanks to the sustained efforts of campaigners, activists and communities’.

Quakers joined hundreds of people in a rally outside Cuadrilla’s shale gas site at PNR in September 2019, after one record-breaking earth tremor caused damage to buildings. The series of tremors included the UK’s largest fracking-induced earthquake on 26 August 2019, measuring 2.9ML. Local Quakers told the Friend at the time that the earthquakes had been frightening and felt across the region.

Cuadrilla has claimed the closure could exacerbate Britain’s energy crisis and hinder the push to so-called ‘net zero’. Green experts counter that the UK’s shale gas reserves would produce a significantly smaller amount of gas than promised and contribute little to the domestic energy supply.

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