Come clean on fracking

The Mid Scotland and Fife MSP is calling on local SNP MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh to clear up her stance on the issue after billionaire, chief executive and chairman of petrochemical giant INEOS Jim Ratcliffe last week said that the Scottish Government is “not against fracking”.

Mr Ratcliffe has also said that he believes an onshore shale gas industry could be up and running on a commercial scale by 2018, while Tom Crotty, director at INEOS Upstream, said that despite the opposition from many SNP members, it would be “logical” for its supporters to back a large scale fracking industry in Scotland as it would strengthen the economic case for independence.

Dr Richard Simpson said: “The SNP Government in Edinburgh is trying to face both ways on fracking, they have to come clean and be honest with people in Ochil & South Perthshire and across Scotland.

“Scottish Labour supports giving local communities the final say over fracking, with a local referendum that would give a veto to the people affected by fracking.

“The SNP Government have consistently failed to support this, and their plans for a consultation of fracking have been kicked into the long grass.

“During the general election SNP MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh campaigned on anti-fracking platform, with leaflets/badges/letters telling people in Ochil & South Perthshire that they were opposed to fracking – the problem is their bosses seem to think otherwise.

“SNP MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh should come clean, do they oppose fracking like she told the people of Ochil & South Perthshire when she was trying to get elected, or do they agree with party bosses and aren’t against it?” INEOS Upstream, INEOS’ new oil & gas exploration and production company, has acquired Petroleum Exploration and Development Licenses (PEDL) for over 700 square miles around the central belt.

Earlier this year, the Scottish Government decided to take a “cautions, considered and evidence-based approach” to fracking and placed a block, moratorium, on the granting of planning consent for all unconventional oil and gas developments in the country until further research and public consultation is carried out.

Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh told the News she “stands by every single word” she said during her campaign.

She said: “While the Labour Party have flip-flopped around since the election, turning their backs on vulnerable families and refusing to join with the SNP in opposing Tory plans for welfare reform, I stand by every single word I said during the election campaign.

“I continue to support the Scottish Government’s moratorium on fracking, and local communities must be in the lead when it comes to future decisions.

“Instead of using spurious stories to smear the SNP, Labour should concentrate on the real task in hand and join with the SNP to oppose the Tories, rather than making up tenuous scare stories with no basis in fact.” Last week, Mr Ratcliffe said: “[The Scottish Government] are being quite clear. What they’ve said to us is they’re not against fracking.

“But what they do need to do is get comfortable with whether they’re happy with the risks of fracking in Scotland. They want to spend a couple of years understanding it in more detail.

“I think that’s a responsible thing for them to do and say. We don’t need to do any fracking for the next couple of years. What we’d like to do is just drill a couple of holes, do the seismic [tests], and just find out what’s down there.

“If there is good shale under Scotland... people don’t realise how significant these things can be. Scotland does need a viable energy policy.

“The North Sea, whether they like it or not, is declining and it’s declining very rapidly and the amount of investment in the North Sea has reduced dramatically in the last couple of years.

“Scotland needs to think about where it goes when the North Sea has declined even further. It will still need to heat the houses and run the factories.”