U.K. call for shale gas drilling halt

A study by the Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research comes amid reports an oil firm has found shale oil reserves in Lancashire, the BBC reported Sunday. The study notes that officials in the United States are investigating allegations that drilling for shale oil has polluted water supplies.

British ministers have rejected a moratorium, saying drilling for shale gas does not pose an environmental threat.

“We are aware that there have been reports from United States of issues linked to some shale gas projects,” a spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change told BBC News. “However, we understand that these are only in a few cases and that Cuadrilla (the firm testing for shale gas in Lancashire) has made it clear that there is no likelihood of environmental damage and that it is applying technical expertise and exercising the utmost care as it takes drilling and testing forward.”

The Co-operative, an institutional investor in oil firms that commissioned the Tyndall study, said it was alarmed the DECC pronounced shale gas safe before the end of an investigation into the technology by a Parliamentary energy and climate change committee.

“We are aghast that government accepted the assurances of industry on this while their own consultation had not even finished,” The Co-operative said in a statement. “There was a shale gas rush in the United States and now they are looking into the implications — we need to do it the other way round.”

UPI