Ministers have paved the way for a reconsideration of the moratorium on fracking in England by commissioning a new study to examine safety concerns about the controversial practice.
In an effort to decrease Britain’s reliance on imported energy given spiralling costs, the business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, said it was “absolutely right that we explore all possible domestic energy sources”.
The Conservatives promised in their 2019 manifesto they would not support shale gas extraction “unless the science shows categorically that it can be done safely”.
A moratorium in England was placed on the process in November 2019 after protests, legal challenges and planning rejections.
A row emerged on Tuesday night, after the Daily Telegraph reported that the Treasury had rejected a request by Kwarteng to spend millions of pounds to reduce bills by making homes more energy efficient.
No 10 and Kwarteng’s officials were pushing for the Energy Company Obligation scheme to be widened beyond people who receive state benefits.
The proposal was for the Treasury to put in about £200m a year extra of taxpayers’ money into the scheme, which uses money raised from a levy on energy bills to pay for home energy efficiency improvements for the poorest households.
However, the Treasury was said to have told the department it had to stick to its three-year spending envelope. There were also concerns about a repeat of the ill-fated green homes grant, fearing more money would be wasted on a scheme with little take-up.
Some Tory MPs have pushed for fracking to be part of the government’s long-delayed energy security strategy, expected to be published on Thursday. But others have predicted it would lead to electoral oblivion in those parts of the country identified for new shale gas extraction, and would fail to bring down energy bills.
Kwarteng said he would be “guided by the science” and emphasised it would take years before enough shale gas could be produced to make more wells commercially viable, with “no effect on prices in the near term”.
He added: “In light of Putin’s criminal invasion of Ukraine, it is absolutely right that we explore all possible domestic energy sources. However, unless the latest scientific evidence demonstrates that shale gas extraction is safe, sustainable and of minimal disturbance to those living and working nearby, the pause in England will remain in place.”
The British Geological Survey has been asked to investigate if there are any new fracking techniques that could be suitable for use in the UK, and how the size of tremors caused by extracting shale gas compares with other forms of underground energy production. The study will also look at whether there are other sites outside those identified in Lancashire that could be at a lower risk of tremors.
Fracking is potentially polluting and disruptive to communities, and many experts say it would take up to a decade to reap any benefits, and the amount of gas would not make a dent in global prices.
Where shale gas wells have been trialled, there has been major local opposition and anger because of earthquakes.
Boris Johnson has resisted the permanent closure of two wells in Lancashire, which were set to be closed on 30 June.
But furious Tory MPs said that by seeking to appease their colleagues on the Net Zero Scrutiny Group, which is pushing for the Lancashire wells to be kept open, Downing Street would ignite a row with a large number of other parliamentary colleagues. Some suspected the level of backlash would be so great that No 10 had put pressure on Kwarteng to make the announcement only in order to keep the option of a return to fracking open without ever properly examining it.
Chris Skidmore, chair of the Net Zero Support Group, said that “red wall” constituencies would be likely to bear the brunt of new fracking sites: “I don’t see this being a serious proposition … It would be extremely damaging ahead of an election.” He added that the government should focus on “moving away from industries of the past” and that instead of spending millions of pounds on assets that “will deplete and become worthless”, ministers should instead support longer-term, renewable energy projects.
The Tory MP Anthony Browne, chair of the cross-party environment parliamentary group, said it was “hard to find community support anywhere where shale gas extraction is being proposed”.
But Francis Egan, chief executive of Cuadrilla Resources, said the move by the government could represent “a tentative first step towards overturning the moratorium” on fracking.
Meanwhile, Labour urged Johnson not to ditch planned higher onshore wind targets in the face of hostility from some of his backbenchers.
