From: Sp!ked
Fracking is the future
We need to remake the case for progress and plenty.
Andy Shaw, writer
A retired vicar from Lancashire, Reverend Michael Roberts, has scored a small victory for human progress. He challenged the myths promoted by environmentalist campaigners, Friends of the Earth (FoE), and won.
The battle began when Roberts happened upon an FoE leaflet, which fell out of his copy of Private Eye. It claimed that hydraulic fracturing to extract shale gas (fracking) caused serious harm to people’s health. Roberts teamed up with retired physics teacher Ken Wilkinson to submit a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). Together, they challenged FoE’s claims that fracking poisons water supplies, causes cancer and destroys the countryside. The ASA found that the claims were contradicted by the wealth of evidence available, and ordered FoE not to repeat them.