NICOLA Sturgeon says she remains “highly sceptical” about fracking but will wait for reports on the impact of the gas extraction method before deciding whether to ban it.
The First Minister’s comments came ahead of a “Hands around the SECC”, or HATS, demonstration at today’s party conference organised by the SNP Members Against Unconventional Oil and Gas (SMAUG) campaign group.
SMAUG said it was wrong to claim this was about infighting, rather that it was about “continuing to engage in a positive, open and welcoming manner with the whole party”.
Friends of the Earth and other campaigners are expected to take part. A similar event, Hands over the Forth, attracted nearly 2,000 campaigners.
Speaking to the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme yesterday, Sturgeon said there were still questions over fracking.
She said: “What we have done is, I think, right. We have set in place a number of strands of work to look in detail at these things. I am not going to, at this stage, pre-empt the outcome of that work, but I am saying I am highly sceptical about fracking.
“We have to make sure we do proper detailed work. If we were to simply take a decision to ban without doing that work then we could leave ourselves open to legal challenge.”
Fracking, the process of drilling into the earth and then blasting a high-pressure water and chemical mixture at rock to release gas inside, is controversial. There are huge sums of money and substantial environmental concerns involved. Currently, there is a moratorium in Scotland on onshore unconventional oil and gas and underground coal gasification.
SMAUG say the aims of HATS, is to highlight “the strength of feeling in local communities against all forms of unconventional gas extraction and the extent to which they have informed themselves about it to protect their communities, their health and their environment”.
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