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Commenting on the reports today (17 April 2012) that a UK Government-appointed panel has stated that gas fracking should continue in the UK, Hannah Kitchen, Campaigner at Friends of the Earth Scotland, said:

“Fracking and other unconventional gas extraction methods should not be allowed to go ahead until all of the potential risks and problems involved have been fully investigated, understood and addressed. Earth tremors are only one of the problems associated with fracking and there are many more potentially negative impacts on the environment and public health.

“Fracking is very energy and water intensive, it involves large amounts of toxic chemicals and there is a significant risk of methane leakage from the bore, which can pollute groundwater sources or escape into the atmosphere as a potent greenhouse gas. These risks would multiply in any commercial project because of the large number of wells required in one area.

“The UK Government should be steering our future energy production towards safe and clean renewable sources, not developing ever harder-to-reach and potentially dangerous sources of new fossil fuels which threaten our climate stability.”

ENDS

For media enquiries, please contact: Per Fischer, Press Office, Friends of the Earth Scotland
 t: 0131 243 2719

Notes to Editors

1. Fracking ‘should continue with checks’
www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17726538

2. Recent studies have shown that shale gas has a greater greenhouse gas footprint than coal. More information in the new Friends of the Earth Scotland briefing on unconventional gas and fracking:
www.foe-scotland.org.uk/unconventionalgas

2. 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, 77 national member groups, and some 5,000 local activist groups – covering every continent.
www.foe-scotland.org.uk