The Scottish government has joined Ireland, Germany, France and Bulgaria in their rejection of the environmentally destructive practice of fracking for oil and gas. A government press release has stated that on 3rd October 2019 the Scottish Government confirmed its final policy position of no support for unconventional oil and gas.
The indefinite governmental ban has put a moratorium on councils issuing fracking permits. In the future the ministers are looking at embedding a strong policy of opposition to fracking into the National Planning Framework. The ministers can understand the mood of the public. Public has always been hostile to fracking and now has swung even further against it because of the climate change. The public also knows that the fracking technology is linked to small earthquakes in Lancashire.
This ban now makes Scotland, the fifth European member country to ban onshore fracking. The Netherlands after significantly increased earthquake activity in the country has a temporary ban on it but will soon join the coalition by making the ban permanent.
The countries are understanding that fracking is a controversial method literally fracturing the earth by extracting oil from the Earth to release gas trapped up to 2 miles beneath its surface. This is officially called Hydraulic fracturing and it uses up to 6 million gallons of fresh water per well. The water is radioactive, containing heavy metals and it needs to be stored in deep wells. These well can leak into the water table around and contaminate the drinking water.