Press Release Regarding Petroleum Licensing Review
""Belcoo Frack Free are concerned about the Department for the Economy's proposed study into oil and gas regulation.
On September 1st last it was confirmed that Fermanagh and Omagh District Councillors rejected DfE's argument that fracking could be regulated. This was a unanimous decision.
The Minister must explain why she is now isolated from her own party's position, that of ALL other parties in Government, and public opinion, in commissioning a review into whether this industry can be regulated in Northern Ireland. She must explain why she is taking the side of a small group of geologists and civil servants in overriding the clear public interest.
The oil and gas industry have contributed to the climate crisis immensely, both through the burning of their product, but more importantly through their pollution of science and their funding of climate-change denial. There are better areas for that seventy five thousand to be spent.
Meanwhile the time for a legislative ban on fracking, giving the same protections as elsewhere on the island, is long overdue. The Minister should champion that legislation, thereby giving a clear message to investors that the 'greening' of our economy is underway, whilst signalling that our countryside and natural heritage which has done much for the physical and mental well-being of our population in the last few months, will no longer be threatened by the oil and gas industry."
ENDS.
