Despite Opposition, Scotland Announces Fracking Ban - Calls For US To Do The Same

Authored by Julia Conley via TheAntiMedia.org,

“We have so much wind and wave power that it is retrograde in the extreme to lend any support to the fracking industry.”

Environmental groups from around the world applauded Scotland on Tuesday for its decision to ban fracking, following an overwhelming public outcry against the practice - and called for the United States and the rest of the United Kingdom to follow suit.

The Scottish government held a public comment period in recent months on fracking, attracting about 65,000 responses - the majority of which came from people in communities where the natural gas extraction would take place. An overwhelming 99 percent of Scots who participated were opposed to the practice.

"Fracking will lead to an increase in pollution and the decimation of parts of the Scottish landscape and environment,” wrote one respondent.

“People will feel even more devalued as a result of having been ignored, communities wll be damaged by fracking wells and health will suffer as a result of noise, ground water contamination and probably indirect air pollution. Scotland can’t afford to damage the health of its residents any more.”

In addition to environmental concerns, many Scots said they weren’t convinced of the potential economic benefits of fracking; the auditing firm KPMG found that it was likely to only increase the GDP by 0.1 percent. Others said relying on the risky method of energy production would signify a lack of innovation in the country.

“We should be moving to renewables. This is a backwards step,” said a commenter.

In a four-month public comment period, 99 percent of the 65,000 Scots who responded expressed opposition to fracking. (Photo: Friends of the Earth Scotland/Flickr/cc)

Another added that the practice was “likely to be entirely detrimental as Scotland’s international reputation as an innovator in design and engineering projects is undermined by our agreement to proceed with fracking…We have so much wind and wave power that it is retrograde in the extreme to lend any support to the fracking industry.”

Food and Water Watch gave credit to the Scottish people for standing up to corporate entities that supported fracking. “Giant energy company Ineos, which invested heavily in its Scottish facility at Grangemouth, fought hard against this ban, even threatening to explore legal action against the government if it passed,” said executive director Wenonah Hauter in a statement. “But people power prevailed, and it will continue to prevail. We can’t let companies like ExxonMobil and Ineos stop the inevitable march towards clean energy. Bold and swift policy change is our only hope for addressing our climate goals. We applaud the Scottish government for doing what’s right for people and the planet.”

Scotland’s decision leaves its neighbors, England and Wales, alone in their embrace of fracking.

“With all our nearest neighbours having banned or halted fracking, our government is increasingly out on a limb in pursuing it in England,” said Rose Dickinson of Friends of the Earth.

Hauter also called on the U.K. as well as the U.S. to follow in Scotland’s footsteps.

“Banning fracking is a necessary step towards beating the worst effects of climate chaos, and the U.K. and the U.S. should follow Scotland’s example,” she said.

“In the U.S., we already have the means to start moving off of fracking swiftly - the Off Fossil Fuels For a Better Future Act, which would mandate a just transition to 100 percent clean renewable energy by 2035, starting with 80 percent within the next 10 years.”

As in Scotland, public opinion in the UK and the US is not in fracking’s favor, despite officials’ insistence that the practice creates jobs and revenue. A poll by England’s Business and Energy Department this summer found that only 16 percent of citizens support fracking, down from 21 percent last year.

In the U.S., opinions are more evenly split, but a 2016 Gallup poll found that 51 percent of Americans oppose fracking, while 36 percent support it.

Amazon Extends Tentacles Further With $13.4 Billion Purchase of Whole Foods

“This is extreme consolidation of the food system in action, which will lead to higher prices, fewer choices for consumers, and bigger profits for billionaires like its owner, Jeff Bezos,” says Wenonah Hauter of Food & Water Watch.

(COMMONDREAMS) — Online behemoth Amazon is acquiring Austin-based Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion, the companies announced Friday—a development that watchdogs say will pad billionaire pockets and spell bad news for consumers.

Jim Cramer, host of CNBC‘s “Mad Money,” expects the deal to make Amazon, headed by Jeff Bezos, “dominate food within the next two years.” He added: “I’m taking down numbers for everybody who sells food. Everybody. Because you can’t compete [with] Amazon. They will not let you compete.”

It’s already “rattled the retail sector.”

Indeed, writes Bloomberg, the acquisition “sends shockwaves across both the online and brick-and-mortar industries. Grocery chains plunged on Friday—Wal-Mart Stores Inc. fell as much as 7.1 percent, while Kroger Co. tumbled 17 percent—as investors worried that woes will mount in the increasingly cutthroat industry.”

(Amazon’s stock, meanwhile, was up 3.3 percent—making the acquisition “essentially free” for the online giant.)

According to Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch, “Too few companies already exert outsized influence over our food choices. This is extreme consolidation of the food system in action, which will lead to higher prices, fewer choices for consumers, and bigger profits for billionaires like its owner, Jeff Bezos.”

“Consumers already face substantially reduced options for grocery shopping because of a wave of mega-mergers that have swept the supermarket and grocery manufacturing industry. In recent years, more than 4,000 grocery stores were joined under two owners after the Albertsons-Safeway and Ahold-Delhaize mergers. The proposed Amazon-Whole Foods deal only further curtails consumer choices and raise prices,” she said.

A report last year from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance outlined the “extending tentacles” of Amazon, which “controls the underlying infrastructure of the economy.”

The company’s already increased dominance, the report warned, is “eroding opportunity and fueling inequality, and it’s concentrating power in ways that endanger competition, community life, and democracy.”

Speaking to that control, Barry C. Lynn, director of the Open Markets Program at New America, stated Friday that the “private corporation already dominates every corner of online commerce, and uses its power to set terms and prices for many of the most important products Americans buy or sell to one another. Now Amazon is exploiting that advantage to take over physical retail.”

“But this is just part of America’s Amazon Problem,” he added. “The corporation wields vastly too much power over America’s markets for books and music, and is fast consolidating control over other key flows of information and ideas.”

Both Hauter and Lynn said regulators block the acquisition.

If it does get approval, Whole Foods co-founder John Mackey will remain its CEO, and the company will keep its headquarters in Austin.

by Andrea Germanos / Creative Commons / Common Dreams / Report a typo