Ineos reopens plant to use fracked gas

Reacting to the news that Inoes will used fracked gas from the US at a reopened plant at Grangemouth, Dr Richard Dixon, Director of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said:

“Fracking has been stopped here because of its impact on local communities and climate change, but Ineos are imposing those same impacts on communities in the United States. Their supplier in Pennsylvania has attracted record fines for polluting groundwater and leaking waste. Scotland would be better off not being associated with this dirty business.
“Once the impacts of fracking are examined, we are confident that it will not get the go ahead here in Scotland. The industry’s legacy of water and environmental pollution around the world has informed the significant public opposition everywhere.

On the products of the Ineos operations.
“Our oceans are filling up with scrap plastic, the last thing we need is more pointless plastic goods. We should be concentrating on recycling valuable materials instead of using fossil fuels to create ever more low grade plastic that ends up in our seas and in landfill.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

Ineos have signed a 15 year deal with Range Resources to supply fracked shale gas.http://www.ineos.com/news/shared-news/ineos-europe-ag-announces-a-new-agreement-to-source-ethane-from-the-usa/

Range Resources have been accused of causing a number of environmental incidents, see a long list http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/tag/range-resources/

Range have had to pay nearly $15m in pollution fines in recent years:

June 2015: The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection announced a record $8.9 million fine against Range Resources, which the agency says has failed to fix a gas well that polluted groundwater and a stream in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. The civil penalty is the biggest ever assessed for a shale gas drilling-related environmental violation in Pennsylvania. http://powersource.post-gazette.com/powersource/policy-powersource/2015/…

September 2014: Range Resources paid a $4.15 million fine for violations at six wastewater impoundments in Washington County, Pennsylvania. This was previously the highest fracking penalty in the state. https://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2014/09/18/range-resources-to-p…

August 2013: Two young children in Pennsylvania were banned from talking about fracking for the rest of their lives under a gag order imposed under a settlement reached by their parents with Range Resources. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/aug/05/children-ban-talking-…

Stop Climate Chaos Scotland will host an online election debate on Climate Day (Monday 18th April) with the five parties currently represented at Holyrood. The debate will be livestreamed on their website and will be hosted by journalist David Torrance  www.stopclimatechaos.org/online-debate-2016

FoES has recently launched the ‘Fossil Free Scotland’ campaign which aims to secure a just transition to a 100% renewable, nuclear-free, zero-fossil-fuel Scotland www.fossilfree.scot 

Friends of the Earth Scotland is:
* Scotland's leading environmental campaigning organisation
* An independent Scottish charity with a network of thousands of supporters and active local groups across Scotland
* Part of the largest grassroots environmental network in the world, uniting over 2 million supporters, 75 national member groups, and some 5,000 local activist groups.
www.foe-scotland.org.uk