Jean wrote the following letter to the Waltham Forest Guardian this week about fracking:

 

Sir

I was disappointed to read that students from Walthamstow School for Girls backed ‘fracking’ during a recent Royal Institution debate (‘Students vote in favour of fracking’, Waltham Forest Guardian, November 21st)

We are told it is a technology that will benefit local communities – and play a key role in promoting UK energy security, and therefore lower energy bills, in future.

But the reality is that it will benefit the energy companies involved – not local people anywhere.

It is unsafe, environmentally-damaging, water-intensive – and will make it harder than ever for the UK to meet its commitments on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Instead we need community-level renewable energy generation that’d be more efficient, cheaper, cleaner, better for the environment – and create more jobs.

Perhaps the students would have taken a different view had they been from Croydon, where proposals to ‘frack’ in the area have already been advanced – and are attracting significant community opposition.

Yours

Jean Lambert MEP (Green Party, London)

It was published here – and responded to a news story which can be found here.