Boris Johnson warned he won't survive continued ban of UK shale gas

London, 15 June - Net Zero Watch is calling on Boris Johnson to stop dithering on UK shale gas, in the face of a sharp intensification of Britain's energy crisis.

In recent days, UK natural gas prices have risen 25% in response to a fire at a major US LNG facility, which will severely reduce the supply for many months to come. In addition, political turmoil has caused Libyan production to almost grind to a halt while Russia has announced to curtail gas exports to Europe.

But despite the risk of a looming energy cost and supply disaster later this year, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has rejected a petition calling on the Government to start exploiting UK onshore gas resources.

Net Zero Watch director, Dr Benny Peiser, says this shows the Government remains the prisoner of green fanatics.

The dithering response from BEIS is divorced from a harsh reality. We should be using every means at our disposal to alleviate the energy crisis, not just the ones that are acceptable in the green clique that surrounds Kwasi Kwarteng and Boris Johnson.

Make no mistake, if people find themselves unable to heat their homes and pay their bills next winter, Boris Johnson and his green ideologues won't survive the political fallout.”

And Dr Peiser has demanded honesty from BEIS ministers and officials:

BEIS’s response to the petition is thoroughly misleading. There has been no verified property damage from fracking in the UK. This claim is simply a deception, and it’s not the first time the public have had cause to doubt the integrity of ministers and officials in that department.”

The response to the petition insinuated (“property damage”) that fracking in Lancashire had damaged houses. In fact, there was a campaign from environmentalists to submit reports to the British Geological Survey. Some of these reports came from many miles from the site, and none were verified. Few were even remotely credible. For example, of the 123 people who reported small cracks in their plaster, more than 50 “didn’t know” if they had also experienced the collapse of a wall.

BEIS has previously been accused of deception over its claims about the cost of renewables, and the report that supported the decision to put the Net Zero target into law.