Fracking vs. Wind: The System Isn’t Fair

January 5, 2018

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Our activism pals at 10:10 are a carbon cutting charity standing up for our right to clean energy. You may have seen some of their previous campaigns demanding the government give wind the financial backing it deserves and calling for fair treatment in the planning system. Now they need your help again in taking a stand as, did you know, the government’s backed fracking and blocked onshore wind? Here’s some more key facts on the issue.

Virtually no one has been given permission to build wind turbines in England since 2015. Meanwhile in Lancashire, fracking company Cuadrilla are sharpening their drills as they get ready to frack for gas - despite the local community doing everything they can to stop it.

Wind turbines have 74% of the public behind them, fracking just 13%. But the government doesn’t see it that way. They’ve rigged the planning system in favour of fracking and against onshore wind. This means communities who want onshore wind cannot have it, while communities who don’t want fracking simply can’t refuse.

If you want to build any type of energy tech - wind or solar or fracking - you'll need planning permission. But in 2015, the government introduced some new guidance for councils when they’re considering onshore wind applications. Taken together, these have all but blanket banned new wind turbines in England.

For fracking, meanwhile, the opposite is true. After fierce local opposition, the council in Lancashire turned down Cuadrilla’s fracking application back in 2015. But central government stepped in and overturned the decision. Now fracking is set to begin before the end of the year.

We want to see a world powered by clean, cheap wind power - not fossil fuels like fracking. That’s why we are calling on the government to lift the ban on onshore wind and hand decision-making power back to local people.

As fracking gets set to begin in the UK for the first time in six years, we need to send an urgent message to the government about the kind of future we want. Sign the petition now to show the government that the British public want onshore wind back at the front of the fight against climate change.