Fracking must not be allowed in UK - Yorkshire Post Letters

From: Sue Cuthbert, Newton on Rawcliffe.

I COMPLETELY agree with Mr Chater regarding the importance of these wind turbines (The Yorkshire Post, May 3). Also, his comment that this Government does not want to upset its Conservative supporters in the shire counties.

There have been recent calls for fracking for gas from some MPs and people who have no idea about the realities of this industry, which, incidentally would only happen in the North.

Fracking cannot happen in Britain for many reasons. Firstly, we have the wrong type of shale.

The geology in this country is not like the US. Fracking is very damaging to water aquifers, to human and wildlife. It requires huge amounts of water and chemicals which cannot be safely disposed of. There would be hundreds of wells. Guess where? In the North.

Since the 60s, Britain has been exporting gas to 48 economies. Why? Could it be something to do with profit? We know that gas prices are set globally. It would seem that this Government is being controlled by the big energy companies. Why won’t they insist that Shell and BP, with their obscene profits, pay a windfall tax? Could it be that Tories have investments in these energy companies? We want to know why. Blaming the terrible war in Ukraine for high gas prices is not on. And no, we do not rely on Russia for our gas. We have enough of our own.

From: Clark Cross, Springfield Road, Linlithgow.

John Chater says that more onshore wind turbines will solve the energy crisis (Letters, The Yorkshire Post, May 3). The majority of existing turbines were manufactured abroad, erected by foreign labour and are owned by foreign companies. They are of no benefit to UK taxpayers.

The owners have been paid “constraint” payments to switch them off when they were producing unwanted electricity. This “subsidy” was added to all UK electricity bills.

Mr Chater states that 70 per cent of the public support wind farms. Who was the client? The wind industry?

Is it not strange that consultants always get the result that the client wants? A survey of 1,000 people is not representative and contacting the majority of those who live in towns and who never see a wind turbine and not those who have to live with the noise, and flicker which causes health problems, obviously provides the desired result.