TO ALL PRINT, BROADCAST AND ONLINE EDITORS
My name is Natascha Engel and I am writing in my capacity as the government’s
newly-appointed Commissioner for Shale Gas. In this role I have been visiting
groups and residents in areas around the UK affected by fracking applications.
Since hydraulic fracturing recently started in Preston, I have become alarmed at
the effect that some of the local and national media coverage on fracking and
earthquakes is having on people.
While fracking operations are underway, the “earthquakes” coverage is almost
constant. Whilst technically true because even the slightest movement
underground is called an earthquake, it is not what normal people understand by
the word.
A tremor over one mile underground reading 1.1 in magnitude on the surface is
not only something that can’t be felt, it is something that would never be
reported if it was caused by anything other than fracking.
Quarry blasting is common in Derbyshire and causes surface tremors many times
greater than fracking. In fact, a blast in the Peak District in August was so strong
that it was picked up by Cuadrilla’s highly sensitive equipment as a 1.7 magnitude
event. But it wasn’t reported because it had nothing to do with fracking.
We have recently had the news of geothermal exploration in Cornwall which uses
a process of injecting water into the ground, very similar to fracking, but because
geothermal energy is considered to be renewable, the process is celebrated (and I
wish it well).
The traffic light system for earthquakes related to fracking was applied to the
industry after it caused small tremors in Blackpool in 2011. It was set extremely
low so that if a tremor of 0.5 is detected (and it can only be detected because of
the highly sensitive equipment that has been installed to do so), operations have
to pause so that everyone can be sure that fracking can continue safely. It was
never intended to stop the industry but rather to reassure people.
Operations do not have to stop in other industries such as construction and
engineering when the equivalent ground motions are detected. By reporting
fracking events that cause tremors of 1.1 as earthquakes but not reporting similar
or greater events in other industries, the media is in danger of reinforcing a
narrative of fear around fracking.

 What matters in this important debate is that it is science and fact led but at the
moment the coverage is highly emotional. Without putting these earthquakes
into a proper context and making people fearful about something that can’t even
be felt, we can’t ever look at the wider picture and ask ourselves why extracting
gas from beneath our feet is so important.
• Gas is significantly cleaner than coal. By changing our coal-fired power
stations to gas the UK reduced its carbon emissions by over 7% between
2015 and 2016.
• 85% of us use gas to heat our homes and over 60% of us use it for cooking.
• Since 2004, we have been importing gas – more and more of it as our
North Sea fields run out. That means billions of taxpayer pounds are being
spent on buying in gas from Qatar.
• Last year, of the total energy we consumed, only 2.2% came from wind and
0.5% came from solar (according to the government’s Digest of UK Energy
Statistics 2018). We are a very long way off a time when renewables plug
the energy gap.
To help bridge to a future where more of our energy comes from renewables,
getting gas from underground in Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire, Derbyshire and
Nottinghamshire, creating hundreds if not thousands of good jobs in places that
really need them, we could displace the gas we are importing at the same time as
using the substantial tax receipts to invest in the NHS, social care or renewable
energy.
The real story that everyone seems to be missing by focusing on tiny tremors that
can’t even be felt at the surface is that Cuadrilla’s test results look like there is
plenty of gas down there.
Forty years ago when we found North Sea oil and gas we rightly celebrated our
energy independence, the hundreds and thousands of jobs that it has brought
over the years, the expertise and knowledge which we can now apply to shale gas
exploration, and the boon to our public finances.
In contrast, the current level of reporting in some areas feels more like what
happened in the mid-19th century when our nascent car industry was nearly
destroyed by forcing a man with a red flag to walk in front of automated road
vehicles to stop them driving faster than 4 miles per hour.

 If we stopped all industries that caused 0.5 magnitude surface tremors, there
wouldn’t be a house, hospital, school or road built.
This is not to say that the current system for pausing fracking should be changed,
only that the reporting of it should be more rational and science-based so that
readers, listeners and viewers can be informed and educated rather than made
afraid.
Precaution is important but so is perspective.
All good wishes

Natascha Engel
Commissioner for Shale Gas