Talking-up Scotland

Note: Above map status 2015

There’s some debate across social media as to whether Scotland can legally ban fracking or whether it will an ‘effective’ ban through devolved control of planning permission refusals and the denial of environmental licences. The newspapers seem convinced that they can put in place a permanent ban and replace the moratorium.

‘Revealed: SNP will ban fracking in Scotland’: Herald

Either way, the prospects for fracking have surely been long dead on the basis of health risks, the unsuitability of Scotland’s geology and the fact that resource booms leave regions worse off once they fade out. See:

Expert Opinion on Fracking Health Risks from New York Medical Professionals

Why the UK’s geology means fracking will never come to Scotland and should never have been allowed in England because it’s 55 000 000 years too late!

Academic Evidence against fracking in Central Scotland

In addition, a third US state, Maryland, has just announced a ban, after New York and Vermont. See:

http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2017/oct/01/maryland-becomes-third-state-to-ban-fra/?f=news

Across Europe, fracking bans are in place in many countries and, in others, it has been obstructed in other ways. See map above.