Tories use market-fuelled price crisis to revisit dangerous fracking

Elaine Evans, Chesterfield Socialist Party

Gas prices have quadrupled since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia supplies 40% of Europe’s gas, pushing wholesale prices up, even before any sanctions came into place.

The existing energy price crisis has deepened and reignited talks of fracking, which is banned in Britain. As it stands, shale gas wells in Britain are set to be closed by the end of June.

Pressure on Boris Johnson to change this decision shows that the economic interests of the bosses trump their concerns for the environment!

Hydraulic fracturing is a process in which water and chemicals are injected into rocks at high pressure kilometres underground to extract gas and oil. This water can include heavy metals that would further pollute water sources.

It also comes with major environmental problems, even causing earthquakes. In Derbyshire, the Socialist Party supported big campaigns against fracking when it was planned under Sherwood Forest and in many ex-coalmining areas. It would take decades to develop production, and offers no route to cheaper energy.

In a series of tweets admitting that the capitalist market is to blame for gas price chaos, Tory minister Kwasi Kwarteng tweeted: “UK producers won’t sell shale gas to UK consumers below the market price. They’re not charities.” As is to be expected, Kwarteng thinks bosses’ profits should come at the expense of forcing people to sit in their coats and extra jumpers in cold, unheated homes.

The Tories are also discussing keeping coal-fired power stations going longer than planned, and are planning a new nuclear power plant – another environmentally risky venture. The government has also said it will expand wind and solar energy production. But, left in private hands, none of these measures will ensure affordable energy. Only public ownership of energy production, under the democratic control of the working class, could overcome the prices chaos of the capitalist market. Energy production could then be planned to meet the needs of people and protect the environment.