Will the Central Belt of Scotland, where 80% of the nation lives, be fracked and have coal fires burning under their feet after the Scottish elections - your vote will decide?
If you want to find out what fracking and Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) will mean for Scotland and your family this blog has been written for you.
Who you vote for at the Scottish elections will decide Scotland's fate and have a far bigger impact on every aspect of every person's lives, in the cenral belt of Scotland than the referendum.
In May 2014 the Scottish Greens demanded a vote in the Scottish Parliament for an outright ban on Fracking in Scotland - SNP, Tories and Labour voted against a ban
So what has changed since then ?
People living in the yellow fracking zone on the above map of Scotland were up in arms when MSP's refused to ban fracking.
As a direct result, in January 2015 the Scottish Government announced they were still refusing to ban fracking but instead they were delaying any decision, until after the next Scottish election, promising no fracking activities could take place in Scotland as a moratorium was now in place - until the Scottish Government consulted their choice of "experts" to advise if it was safe.
Despite the Scottish Government's claim their moratorium covered all unconventional oil and gas extraction, campaigners were furious at this, immediate, misleading statement, as the moratorium did not cover Underground Coal Gasification (UCG). Why did that matter?
The UCG Toxic Plans For Scotland
Scotland is to be Westminter's guinea pig, once again, only this time in a toxic trial - the first underwater trial of UCG anywhere in the world - by companies with absolutely no UCG experience (despite even the Westminster UCG committee questioning was it too risky).
UCG is burning coal underground, where it lies, instead of safely in power stations - it is so dangerous after 70 years of tiny trials no country in the world has commercial UCG - it's worse than fracking and nuclear.
Australia decided to conduct three small, government supervised trials, refusing to roll it out until these trials proved the claims new horizontal drilling techniques would mean UCG could finally be done safely.
All three trials, 100% of them, caused serious environmental damage, which the companies conducting the trials tried to cover up - groundwater, land and livestock got contaminated with carcinogenic chemicals - one of the trials having to be shut down permenantly within weeks of starting - resulting in the Queensland Government taking all three companies to court.
The UCG Association, based in London, claimed the Linc Energy "flagship trial" was the "Eureka Moment" that proved, after 70 years, UCG can finally be done safely.
But then the news came out, after Linc Energy had fled the country, this "flagship trial" had exposed workers to toxic gases and was leaking toxic gases Hydrogen Sulphide, Carbon Monoxide, Methane and Hydrogen from deep underground, gases which have now risen to just below the surface, at explosive levels, across a 320 sq km radius of the trial,
Farmers have been told not to dig below 2m for their own safety and the government does not know if the coal fires have been left burning when Linc Energy fled the country after government inspectors raided their offices after workers tipped of the government what was really going on at the trial site.
Yet the next day, on 2nd March 2014, the company who planned to use Scotland for their UCG trial, Cluff Natural Resources' spokesman, made a statement saying UCG posed "negligible risk".
George Bender, the elderly farmer in this ABC TV news report about the UCG disaster creating an environmental time bomb, committed suicide last October with his wife, Pam, saying after the funeral, "“CSG [coal seam gas industries hounded and bullied George for 10 years,” and "the state government had ignored the family’s pleas for help".
After years of fighting legislators and the Coal Seam Gas companies, where they destroyed his peace of mind and a UCG disaster meaning he could no longer even dig below 2m on the farm that had been in his family for 140 years, resulting in him giving up - he could not take any more.
Saying nothing of the ongoing UCG trial disaster in Australia, on 28th September 2015 Scottish Ministers were adamant they would not include UCG in their moratorium.
In response, two weeks later, nearly 2000 people, from across Scotland, England and even Australia, held a demonstration, "Hands Across The Forth", in the lead up to the SNP conference, to show the Scottish Government they were not standing for their plans, to use Scotland and it's people as guinea pigs for both governments toxic UCG trial.
With SNP members from across Scotland taking part in this demonstration too and SNP branches across the country demanding a ban on fracking, UCG and CBM in Scotland the SNP leadership were under pressure from all sides.
Both government's were fast losing control of what was meant to be an energy policy for the whole of the UK, rolled out by stealth as Scotland's people were on the ball.
How Opponents Can Receive Legal Threats : The Report They Don't Want You To See on UCG
I started researching UCG in 2013, after the people of Warwickshire were the first to be threatened with UCG in their area.
I wrote two articles for Open Democracy, "Is fracking all we have to worry about?" and "Naughty Boy Receives Coal (at our expense)"
I was so shocked by what I discovered as I continued my research, I wrote a report, "Theft of Austerity Britain's Coal, UCG Licenses, Lies and the Insatiable Greed of the 1%", to help educate people to the dangers and how the British Establishment were attempting to steal Austerity Britain's coal reservers, worth £trillions, from this Austerity laden nation.
I started sharing the report with campaign groups in all the areas where UCG licenses had been issued, as, while everyone was talking about fracking, no one was talking about UCG - and practically nobody in Britain knew anything about it.
But one of the new UCG companies, Five Quarter, owned by the Lords and Ladies of Britain and university academics, (with no UCG experience), but a fistful of UCG licenses across the UK, they hoped would make them all very rich, were not happy I was educating MP's, MSP's, councillors and local people, in all the license areas.
How did I know that, because they sent me a letter (by email) with just 24 hours to respond, threatening to sue me for defamation and malicious falsehood - the most expensive court case known to man- if I don't "cease and desist" sharing my report. (copy of the legal threat at the bottom of this blog).
Environmental consultant Paul Mobbs wrote an article, in the Ecologist Magazine, "Coal Gas company warns - stop campaigning or we will sue", with the Herald, Friends of the Earth Scotland, Greenpeace all reporting on this attempt to bully me into silence, with a legal threat, by some of the the richest people in Britain and their academic experts, with the Green Energy News Review sharing a video news report widely across the renewable energy sector.
All this publicity, defeated the point of the SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation), as instead of silencing me it started shining a far brighter light, than I could on my own, for what was meant to be the secret UCG plan for Britain and I never heard another thing from Five Quarter.
In response, this attempt to silence me, just spurred me on to write a follow up report, "UCG the Toxic Revelations" to share the latest events in Australia and the clear and present danger to our health and wealth from this attempt by both governments to roll out UCG across the UK by as much stealth as possible.
With thousands of people across the UK now campaigning to educate the nation about the real dangers of UCG - Five Quarters, the Scottish and Westminser Governments found they were all having to fight on all fronts.
Despite the Westminster government also giving the company a grant of £15million of taxpayers money and a £1 billion taxpayer guarantee to ensure if they got investors if it all went wrong taxpayers would be forced to give them their money back - Five Quarter went bust in March this year after campaigners successfully stalled both government's toxic plans.
Five Quarter state on their website - it was purely shareholders money that had funded the company - so can we have the £15 million grant back please - as the company states themselves, on their own website - it was not used.
Moratorium, How The Meaning changed and How We Pay The Price
The "Broad Alliance" of people fighting to protect Scotland from fracking and UCG were getting the UCG toxic plans for Scotland too much attention, and with the SNP leadership facing a revolt at their own conference - on 8th October 2015 declared UCG would now be placed in the moratorium too.
But their hasty u-turn on UCG, just 10 days after the Scottish Government decided it was not for turning, did not appease the people fighting to protect Scotland - Why?
At the same time, the Scottish Government used this announcement to announce, what Scotland's Broad Alliance immediately knew, was a complete change to the meaning of the world "moratorium".
Instead of the word meaning "cease all activity" until we get more information - of which there is no shortage, like Tony Blair, clever lawyer Nicola changed her definition to now include "test drilling" for UCG and fracking - a normal part of the fracking and UCG process.
So not only had the moratorium been completely changed to allow the normal fracking and UCG test drilling phase to go ahead by licenses holders, but Scottish taxpayers were now, very cleverly being landed with the fracking and UCG test drilling bill - something that must have pleased the rich shareholders of Ineos and Cluff Natural Resources - as in England companies have to pay for their own test drilling.
Is the SNP "test drilling" exercise about fact finding for the government (at our expense) or is it to help Ineos decide if their licenses will yield gas, as the other frackers are having to do in England, as the British Geological Society website states of the fracking license area in Scotland
"The figure for both shale gas and shale oil represent the total amount of gas and oil present in the rocks. Reserve and recovery estimation is not possible at this stage;
In order to estimate the shale gas and oil reserves, drilling and testing of new wells will be required to understand if commercial production rates would be achieved".
So with no ban on fracking, UCG or CBM and instead fracking and UCG "test drilling" now authorised to go ahead in Scotland, under the guise of a moratorium, is fracking banned by law anywhere in the UK as the SNP and Broad Alliance members demand for Scotland?
In September 2015, Northern Ireland enshrined a ban on fracking in their planning laws to protect their people, their economy, their air, their water, their land, their livestock, their food chain, house prices and NHS from the horrendous effects fracking has on them all.
So before we vote in the Scottish elections, where does each political party stand now?
The Fracking & UCG Manifestos For The 2016 Scottish Election
Having had two years to do further research, as more evidence has become known, not only the Scottish Greens but now Labour, Lib Dems, Solidarity and Rise are all united and will ban fracking, UCG and CBM in Scotland together - no ifs or buts - after reports of earthquakes, polluted water, toxic air pollution and horrendous health effects started to become better known.
By January 2015 it was reported a bitter row erupted within the SNP as Joan McAlpine fighting her own party leaders, on behalf of her constituents, regarding test drilling for coal bed methane (CBM) is reported to have said
Fergus "Ewing’s undisguised support for developing underground gas was damaging the government’s credibility in communities across Scotland, McAlpine warned Sturgeon. Canonbie residents fear that they have been “sold out” in a “stitch-up” by the minister.
Bill Frew, an SNP member, and Chair of the Canonbie District Residents Association said
he "was grateful for McAlpine’s support, but said there were “political machinations” behind the scenes and “deals being done behind our backs”. (Fergus) Ewing was so biased in favour of gas development, he alleged, that it was difficult to tell him apart from a Tory."
The SNP leadership also stand accused of ""rigging" over lack of fracking debate" after 20 SNP branches put forward a motion to ban fracking and all unconventional gas extraction - a motion the leadership stand accused of blocking just last month
As it was reported in the Scotsman
"Dr Richard Dixon, director of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: “It is disgraceful that the SNP have rigged the agenda of the spring conference to avoid a debate that would embarrass the leadership"
with the report going on to say
"Judging by the mood in the room last autumn there is little doubt that had the motion made it onto the spring agenda the party would vote for a full ban""
And despite Scottish Tories claim they vow to be strong opposition to SNP after the election, they propped up SNP in the previous parliament, and the Scottish Tories support fracking - so will prove no opposition at all, once again, if SNP decide to frack Scotland after the election - with Tory support.
Who is in the Fracking UCG and CBM Firing Line ?
Ineos, who currently hold fracking licenses for 700 sq km of the central belt of Scotland, is confident SNP will allow Scotland to be fracked, with reports "The billionaire who wants to establish a large scale fracking industry in Scotland says he has received private assurances from the SNP that the party is "not against" the controversial technique".
But it is not just Ineos the people living in Scotland's central belt have to worry about.
Freedom of information requests revealed a further nine companies have applied for 19 licenses, each covering 100 sq km of the central belt, meaning 2,600 sq km of that yellow band above - where 80% of the Scottish population lives - could be fracked after the Scottish election.
The Guardian story, "Fracking firms target sites close to Scottish cities" explained "The Ferret", a new Scottish investigative journalism online new site, had revealed
"The Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) has disclosed that nine companies have applied to drill for shale gas on 19 sites, each covering 100 sq km, in heavily populated areas close to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Motherwell, Linlithgow, Bathgate, Rosyth and Kirkcaldy"
The map above shows the areas likely to have fracking licenses issued if the moratorium is lifted without a ban, all of them densely populated, unlike fracking areas in America and Australia, which tend to be in more secluded spots, yet people are still taking seriously ill there from fracking operations two miles away.
Ineos have admitted they will frack just 400m from schools in Scotland if there is no ban after the moratorium is lifted.
With the SNP government, like Jungle Book's Kaa the snake, successfully lulling Scotland into a false sense of security in the run up to the election with their trust in me moratorium mantra.
The Ineos boss is still so confident, it was reported he plans a speech at an oil and gas conference, 3 days after the Scottish elections, to set out his fracking plans for Scotland after he said in March he believes he will be able to frack Scotland after the elections, based on new "expert" advise - and private SNP leadership assurances - but only if SNP and the Tories win power again.
With the moratorium ensuring SNP have given the impression all fracking and UCG activity has stopped, while forcing taxpayers to pay for test drilling they have now authorised, and the moratorium ensuring there can be no national debate on fracking and UCG, before the election, why have most of the political parties said they will now ban fracking, UCG and Coal Bed Methane (CBM) extraction if they are elected instead?
What do they know the current Scottish Government is not telling the nation?
Proven Health Impact of Fracking - everyone in Scotland must be told
This is just one family's experience once fracking started.
The Parr family in Texas has been awarded $3million damages after they became seriously ill, after fracking started over two miles away as the Los Angeles Times revealed on 23rd April 2014:
Mrs Parr started off "with blinding headaches and feeling sick to her stomach".
"Soon, she said, she developed a mysterious rash all over her body and open sores that never healed. Sometimes she had trouble standing and became disoriented. Once the rashes and sores became so severe that emergency room doctors had to pack her body in ice.
Her daughter, then in first grade, had horrible nosebleeds as she slept and would awaken soaked in blood.
Her husband began to have memory problems.
"We went to eight different doctors. None of them could figure it out," Lisa Parr said.
Their calves were born with birth defects, and their pets began to die.
By January 2010, the Parrs' neighbors also complained of mysterious ailments. That family hired a specialist to test the air and suggested the Parrs do the same.
The tests found BTEX — benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene — all colorless but toxic chemicals typically found in petroleum products.
Lisa took the findings to her doctor. "My doctor told me I needed to move out immediately or I would spend more time and money on hospitalizations, chemotherapy and a mortician," she said."
By July 2014, a judge upheld the award, while other fracking firms had already settled with the Parrs out of court, with the Reuters report revealing
"In April, the jury awarded the Parrs $275,000 for the drop in their property value, $2.4 million for past physical suffering and mental anguish and $250,000 for future harm. Judge Mark Greenberg on July 9 entered a final judgment for the Parrs and denied Aruba's bid to overturn the multimillion dollar jury award.
The Reuters report reveals the family's health problems were not about drinking and bathing in contaminated water, as you may have thought, but by the air itself becoming toxic, caused by emissions from fracking operations and the vast amounts of industrial traffic required to support them.
Mrs Parr was worst effected as as she was at home all day and the air, as in a school, workplace or any building, does not circulate well, allowing invisible poisons to concentrate in the air at toxic levels to the human body.
The LA Times report revealed LIsa Parr said
"The trouble began when so many wells began burrowing into the land near their home - 20 within two miles"
Ineos have admitted their fracking wells could be set up within 400 meters of schools in Scotland.
Test Drilling Problems & Gaping Holes in Planning Laws Meant To Protect Us
Despite assurances Scotland is protected by the moratorium, in October 2015 the Scottish government declared
"Test drilling for unconventional coal and gas has been given the go-ahead as part of an 18-month process to determine whether industrial-scale fracking should be allowed in Scotland."
Yet test drilling of UCG and fracking will not answer the questions are fracking and UCG safe - but it does help the fracking and UCG operators to identify the best place to start their fracking and UCG operations, with the added bonus the Scottish Government is using this to get Scottish taxpayers to pay all the costs these companies normally have to pay themselves.
And while the Scottish government have claimed for two years they don't have the facts they need, is this true?
As the SNP government were told by their own regulator SEPA, four years ago, drilling for unconventional gas in Scotland definitely risked our water, as Herald Reporter Rob Edwards revealed, 2 years after the SNP government knew
"The Sepa report, marked “internal only”, was written by experts for its Water and Land Policy and Regulatory Support Group and released under environment information law. “The construction of deep boreholes presents a high risk to the water environment,” it says".
"Vertical and horizontal drilling for gas down to 2,500 metres poses a greater danger of pollution than boreholes for water, which were mostly less than 100 metres deep, it argues."
Yet, this week, one of the Scottish Government's chosen "experts", Professor Paul Younger, discussed a new report in the ""Royal Society of Edinburgh journal" where he appears to claim the opposite as the Herald quotes him saying
This "leading academic" from the university of Glasgow also said " evidence shows the controversial technique “would not pose a danger”"
For academic "experts" to claim fracking poses 'no threat to drinking water' is the equivalent of doctors (experts) who claimed the morning sickness pill, Thalidomide, for pregnant women, posed no threat to unborn children.
Dr Dixon, Director of Friends of the Earth Scotland responded saying
" “These conclusions would be a big surprise for hundreds of families in the US who are living off water that has to be trucked in after fracking operations led to toxic contamination of their water,”"
“This study also ignores the high failure rate of well shafts, which means contamination can reach groundwater and surface water from much closer to ground level"
And this report in the "Royal Society of Edinburgh" journal also appears to contradict the 2012 SEPA report which stated
"Deep saline waters can contaminate more drinkable upper aquifers “if the borehole is not adequately constructed”. The report also points out that “fracking fluids” that could be used to help extract methane must “not be allowed to leak into other parts of the groundwater system”
"According to the Sepa report, four gas boreholes dug in Canonbie lacked cement lining between 100 and 400 metres underground, potentially allowing contamination of a water aquifer. Sepa said it is requiring its current owner, Dart Energy, to take remedial action to make them safe. "
By January 2015 Rob Edwards further investigations revealed in his report,"The Failure To Regulate Underground Gas In Canonbie", just how oil and gas companies and officials exclude elected councillors from decisions and circumvent planning laws to start drillling and avoid the planning laws, currently not fit for unconventional gas exploration next to homes and schools - as his report reveals
"A formal complaint against the planning authority, Dumfries and Galloway Council, is under investigation by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman.
Planning permissions for 18 boreholes and a gas plant to extract coalbed methane around Canonbie were granted by the council in 2009 and 2010, then renewed in 2011 and 2013. This all happened with virtually no public scrutiny, and decisions were taken by officials rather than councillors.
According to critics, the applications managed to slip under the radar because they were treated as individual small developments, rather than being considered together as a major development. Developers have often been accused of splitting potentially controversial projects into more acceptable bite-sized chunks, a tactic known as “salami-slicing”."
And regarding those faulty Canonbie boreholes the story revealed
"Planning permissions for the boreholes were renewed despite the discovery in 2011 by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) that four exploratory boreholes drilled earlier had flaws that could cause them to leak. An internal Sepa report revealed by the Sunday Herald in March 2014 said there had been “poor borehole construction” at Canonbie.
According to Sepa, the boreholes lacked cement lining between 100 and 400 metres underground, potentially allowing a water aquifer to be contaminated. The four boreholes were plugged and abandoned last year.
Sepa has said that it did not inform Dumfries and Galloway Council of the flawed boreholes. It stressed, however, that it had toughened up its regulatory procedures".
The "Experts" chosen by the Scottish Government To Mislead Scotland That Fracking & UCG and CBM are Safe?
Professor Paul Younger
With Professor Paul Younger claiming on Friday, 30th April, fracking does not contaminate water, this is not the first time Professor Younger has given his expert opinion regarding fracking.
In 2013 the Scottish Government appointed Professor Younger to their "Expert Scientific Panel" tasked with reviewing the existing scientific evidence on unconventional hydrocarbon development.
The "Expert Scientific Panel" concluded fracking could be done safely in July 2014, just two months after the three year Parr family landmark court case in Texas revealed exactly how unsafe fracking really is.
The Scottish Government's chosen "experts" concluded
"“..The Panel found that there are no significant technological impediments to the development of an onshore unconventional hydrocarbon industry in Scotland and furthermore that the technology currently exists to extract such hydrocarbons safely
.“The Panel also found that much of the regulatory regime is already in place to ensure effective monitoring and control of unconventional oil & gas developments, although a number of areas were identified which require further consideration".
But Professor Younger did not tell the nation when he was appointed to be an expert adviser on the merits of unconventional gas he had £1 billion reasons to advise it should go ahead, as at that time he was a member of the board who help found a new unconventional gas company, Five Quarter.
His company was awarded £15 million taxpayers money, from Westminster's Regional Growth Fund in May 2013 to help the "academic experts" new unconventional gas company get started and had also, just prior to this, requested a £1 billion taxpayer guarantee from Westminster too, with the CEO of the company, expert academic and former businessman, Harry Bradbury saying in March 2014
"We went to them about a year ago now to ask if our project could form part of the Government's Infrastructure Guarantee Scheme. We asked them if they would consider potential investments at more than 1 billion pounds’ worth where the Government acts as a guarantor of investments. The purpose of that investment is not just to build a sub-surface infrastructure to actually extract the gases, but to build a unique facility at the surface to purify the gases and to separate them out into different fractions for different industries. There is a carbon capture process that is part of that.
We've been successful in reaching this stage with the Treasury and our intention is to build a certain facility that allows us to take that raw gas from underground and to create gas that's separated out for chemicals industries and potentially for the clean fuels industry. "
After it was pointed out Paul Younger had a complete conflict of interest, being on the board of an unconventional gas company that plans to burn billions of tons of coal underground and also extract shale gas, while he sits on an "expert panel" to advise if unconventional oii and gas extraction is safe, he made a statement.
His statement was published on the Daily Business website under the headline "Paul Younger : fracking furore is a 'typhoon in a tea cup'" where he said
Once again it is not what Professor Younger says, it is what he does not say, as while he is adamant he has no links to a fracking company, or own shares in one, or paid by one, he makes no reference to the fact he does sit on the board, and own shares and is paid by a different type of unconventional gas company, Five Quarter, to try to roll out UCG across the UK at great taxpayer expense.
Despite his company getting £15 million of taxpayers money and asking for and getting a £1 billion taxpayer guarantee, he went on to say
and
In layman terms, a potable water aquifer is what is known as is drinking water to non "experts". Here is the map of potable water aquifers in the fracking areas of Scotland the "expert" Professor Younger claims don't exist in the fracking area- where the British Geological Society states on page 16 of their report to assessing the fracking potential in Scotland, of Fife (the first fracking area)
" the Devonian/Carboniferous sandstones of Fife form strategically important aquifers. These are some of the most productive aquifers in Scotland, and are heavily utilised to provide drinking water supplies and as a source of water for agricultural irrigation."
I am no expert, but I would say that completely contradicts what the Scottish government's choice of scientific "expert", Professor Younger, said when he tried to claim he had no conflict of interest.
He is not the only "expert" chosen by the Scottish Government so they can all tell us together, after the election fracking is safe - when it clearly is not.
Ramboll Environ
Just weeks ago, on 21st Feb, SNP leadership were caught again choosing more "experts" they know are likely to claim fracking is safe for them, as they too have a vested interest, after a Sunday Herald investigation headlined "Government ditches pro-fracking consultant after Sunday Herald investigation" revealed
"The Scottish Government has ditched a major contract to investigate the environmental impact of fracking after the Sunday Herald revealed it had been awarded to an avowed supporter of the controversial technology.
Earlier this month ministers gave a £36,000 contract to the Edinburgh firm Ramboll Environ, but in a dramatic u-turn on Friday night, the deal was abruptly dumped."
Anne Johnstone, Senior Manager at Ramboll Environ was one of the unconventional gas speakers at the Shale & Unconventional Gas conference, on 24th Feb 2016 "a unique one-day programme the advert said was important to help
"an understanding of the public perception of these risks", (of UCG fracking and CBM etc) "along with effective communication and engagement strategies, is required in order to win hearts and minds, and to allow development to move ahead."
Was the SNP government hoping to use Ramboll Environ to win hearts and minds, for them to allow development of UCG, fracking and CBM to move ahead?
Quotes from Labour and Green MSP's and an academic in the Herald story said
"The Lothian Labour MSP Neil Findlay questioned whether ministers were guilty of cock-up or a conspiracy. “It looks awfully like the Scottish Government have been caught red handed and withdrawn this contract only after they knew they had been caught,” he said. “This is yet more evidence that their moratorium is a complete sham. It would have taken literally seconds to discover Ms Blythe is a staunch supporter of fracking, so appointing her in the first place really calls into question processes of due diligence when awarding public contracts.”"
""The Glasgow Green MSP Patrick Harvie argued that the u-turn showed how Scottish ministers had to be watched. “Without pressure from voters and the media, this dodgy research contract would have gone ahead unnoticed,” he said."
Professor Andrew Watterson, who heads the Occupational and Environmental Health Research Group at the University of Stirling, agreed it was wise to axe the contract. “However, the awarding of contracts for the moratorium still raises wider questions about how potential conflicts of interests and partisan positions are and can be identified in all contractors and their staff,” he said."
Professor Campbell Gemmell
When the Scottish government gave fracking and UCG "test drilling" the go ahead, Nicola Sturgeon stated Professor Campbell Gemmell would head the study into UCG.
Campbell Gemmell being the man who, when head of SEPA, failed to inform the council about problem test drilling boreholes, that could contaminate groundwater in Canonbie.
After that failure, Campbell Gemmell was soon rewarded with a job as Chief Executive of South Australian Environment Protection Authority - where he "overlooked" a request to meet with residents affected by low level noise problems from wind farms, which are driving people from their homes.
They complained his choice of "expert" was not the sort of "expert" they expected to investigate the problem while he refused free assistance from the world's leading experts in measuring accoustics.
Of course Campbell Gemmell has conveniently returned to Scotland just in time to be hired as a "consultant and for Nicola to hire him - was he hired because he has already failed to inform councillors about test drilling problems in their area?
Will he inform Scotland's people about the three recent disastrous tiny UCG trials in Australia (set up purely to assess if UCG can be carried out safely) with all three companies trials leading to the companies being taken to court after they were caught attempting to cover up the serious environmental damage their trials caused?
And will he inform Scotland how Linc Energy, the company conducting, what was claimed to be the world's "flagship" UCG trial, that was the "Eureka moment" that proved for the first time after 70 years of trying, that UCG could finally be carried out safely has caused the biggest environmental disaster in Australia's history?
Will he warn the people of Scotland, Linc Energy fled the country when government inspectors moved in and have just went into "voluntary administration" to avoid the court case and the clean up costs and jail - just like bankers the rules mean they get away scott free - is that what will happen to Scotland and the resto fhe UK too?
All this reason for Campbell Gemmell to scream at NIcola Sturgeon and the Nation - no UCG test drilling should go ahead in Scotland at all and UCG should be completely banned, in his "expert" opinion, as the former head of SEPA, having not so long ago stepped down as the former Chief Executive of South Australian Environment Protection Authority.
He has said nothing of any this to the people of Scotland.
And Nicola Sturgeon and Campbell Gemmell have said nothing to the people of Scotland that just ten days ago, on the 18th April, 2016, the Queensland Government, as a result of the disastrous UCG trials, declared an immediate ban on all UCG with laws to follow as ABC News in Australia reported
""The potential risks to Queensland's environment and our valuable agricultural industries far outweigh any potential economic benefits."
"Environment Minister Steven Miles said the Linc Energy project near Chinchilla was "the biggest pollution event probably in Queensland's history"".
"Certainly the biggest pollution investigation and prosecution caused — it is alleged by the Environment Department — by the activities of Linc Energy at their underground coal gasification site," he said.
"It came one month after the company was committed to stand trial on five charges relating to breaches in Queensland's environmental laws at its UCG site".
"The state's environment department accused the company of wilfully causing serious harm at its trial site near Chinchilla on the Darling Downs."
Mr Hutton, of campaign group Lock The Gate "said on Friday that Linc Energy could face up to $56 million in fines if found guilty.
But he said the penalty might never be paid, as going into administration was a common legal manoeuvre to dodge fines and costly clean-ups."
It appears the minute any government across the UK, or their appointees from their "web of influence" use the word "expert", as this weeks "expert" report that fracking does not contaminate water demonstrates, to any reasonable person "expert" appears to be just a word that can be interchanged now with the words "misleader" or "burier of inconvenient truths".
The fact the Scottish Government have known about this all along and said absolutely nothing, while allowing Tory Algy Cluff's company to claim there is "neglible risk" for Scotland, is a damning indictment of the SNP party leadership - who collude with the Westminster Tories to try to use Scotland and it's people in their toxic UCG experiment, because they knew Australia was not going to approve UCG as the global greedy 1% had all hoped.
And not only did the SNP leadership keep the people of Scotland in the dark, they gagged their own members, who formed the group "SNP Members Against Unconventional Oil and Gas" (SMAUG) and at least 20 SNP branches as they desperately fought for their country and their nation not to be used to feed the greed of the SNP leadership's Privy Council Lord and Lady colleagues.
And it is a daming indictment of the so called independent academic experts who are just another part of the entire rotten system of the "web of influence" that any reasonable thinking person can now see is, in Scotland and the rest of the UK, just a corrupt criminal gang who work together to lie by ommission and steal and cheat, working together to feed their own insatiable greed - while the hardworking people of Britain always pay the price.
And I will especially damn Professor Paul Younger, who helped set up a UCG company in the hope of beocming a very rich man at our expense, who this week dared to claim fracking will not pollute groundwater, and who attempted to threaten me into silence with the most expensive court case in the world, a defamation lawsuit - with the added threat of claiming it was with malicous intent because I dared to write and share a report with the elected representatives of the people of Britain to warn them what was going on in Australia and the secret toxic energy policy for Britian - as no one knew anything about UCG in Britain or the disastrous trial results across the world - exactly how the SNP and Tory and Lib Dem MP's and MSP's tried to keep it with their expert "web of influence" pals assistance.
The Fracking, UCG & CBM "Web Of Influence"
Nicola Sturgeon said "an independent academic body" (web of influence) will oversee the fracking and CBM "test drilling".
She claims "research" is the key driver - research for whom - not Scotland as test drilling does nothing to prove if fracking, UCG and CBM is safe - it is just the start of the unconventional gas extraction industry being rolled out across Scotland - as test drilling is their way to find out where is the best place to start and how profitable it will be for them - at our expense.
And once again will the SNP mis-leadership "independent academic body" have people like Professor Paul Younger and his fellow academic experts who were on the board of UCG company Five Quarter to oversee fracking "test drilling", which requires planning consent - no different to the "test drilling" that people across England are fighting tooth and nail.
The Evening Times report quoted Dr Richard Dixon, director of Friends of the Earth Scotland, saying
"If companies end up paying research bodies to take part in test drilling, that would raise questions about the validity of the moratorium."
Environmental consultant and honest academic expert, not infected with insatiable greed, Paul Mobbs, after painstaking research, put together, what he called the Frackogram diagram, showing the interlinked "web of influence" between government, corporations and so called independent academic experts.
Paul Mobbs graphic on the comprehensive frackogram from his tutorial on how to use his Frackogram browser
Five Quarter academic experts setting up a company with the Lords and Ladies of Britain for less than £2000 between them, being handed £15m of taxpayers money, multiple UCG licenses (when they have absolutely no UCG experience), each license entitling them to 100% rights and interests to billions of tons of this austerity laden nation's coal reserves and a £1 billion taxpayer guarantee for investors in case they lost money on top - a prime example of how the "web of influence" operates across the corrupt to the core Scotland and the rest of the UK
With Cluff Natural Resources, headed by failed ex-Tory party candidate and fundraiser using the services of the ex head of the Coal Authority (who give out the UCG licenses), an Earl and a banker on the board, holding 9 UCG licenses across the UK - again each transferring 100% rights and interests to billions of tons of the nations' coal reserves from the nation to the private company - despite the company having absolutely no UCG experience either.
So we have misleading experts and politicians, secret deals, government reports kept hidden, councillors kept in the dark and that's just at the "test drilling stage".
What else do we not know about yet, that we must fear, on top of the earthquakes and the poisoned water and toxic air, food chain and land that will have dire consequences for 80% of the Scottish population, who will be surrounded by fracking wells, with hellfire under our feet in the central belt if Ineos and Cluff Natural Resources are right - and SNP authorise fracking and UCG in Scotland, with the government and their revised version of a moratorium being used to stop the much needed national debate?
But the SNP treachery does not end there- there is something equally as bad as their attempt to roll out fracking and UCG and CBM in Scotland.
Water Shockers
Water is vital for fracking and UCG operations and it has been proven they both contaminate groundwater - despite what UK "experts" would have you believe - UCG with cancer causing chemicals in all three recent Australian Trials - think Erin Brockovich.
Nicola Sturgeon stated water is vital for every economy and claimed SNP could be trusted to ensure Scotland's resources would be used for the benefit of Scotland's people.
Nicola and Alex also claimed they would not privatise, what we believed to mean, Scotland's water, they want independence from the UK and don't do deals with Tories
I referred to the SNP leadership as the SNP "mis-leadership" and what follows regarding Scotland's most precious resource, water, explains why.
As well as Nicola Sturgeon signing a secret deal with a corrupt Chinese company (with London Tories involved), where we have now discovered she deliberately misled the nation once we did find out about it (just weeks ago) - there are far worse secret deals Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond have been doing.
Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond did a "secret water shocker" deal with David Cameron, to create a UK private water market together, which now includes Scotland's water, behind Scotland's back during the referendum - stealing Scotland's water independence.
And as part of the deal SNP agreed with David Cameron's demand that private English water companies can keep the wholesale as well as the retail money for the water (that Scotland will be exporting to England in huge quantaties for fracking).
Nicola Sturgeon personally lodged the paperwork in the Scottish Parliament and then sent it down to Westminster to give Cameron permission to change Scotland's water laws so he could include Scotland's water in HIS new UK private water market - which Nicola states in the official Scottih Government paperwork (LCM or Sewell Motion in point 9) is a "joint objective" between the Scottish and Westminster Parliament - while she told the people of Scotland she does not do deals with Tories.
When I challenged Nicola Sturgeon to her face about this dea at a public meeting just weeks before the referendum, as the SNP / Westminster coaltion deal all became Westminster Law, receiving Royal Ascent on 14 May 2014, she desperately tried to mislead the audience and said I must move on we can speak at the end.
So I waited and she agreed to talk after getting a photograph taken with the local MSP.
Instead after the photo op, she turned her back on me, got her entourage to surround her and walked up the hall.
I followed, saying nothing, just waited patiently in her line of sight - she shook hands for ten minutes with people who trusted her, refusing to look me in the eye, and fled the hall as she knew that I knew about her and Alex own secret SNP private better together deal to set up a totally unregulated UK privaet water mareket, between Scotland England and Wales,with Westminster Tories and Lib Dems - at the same time SNP toured Scotland claiming they want to split from the UK and don't do deals with Tories - while demonising Labour just for campaigning with the Tories for a NO vote!
SNP making a mockery of the people and the referendum by creating a UK market with Cameron behind their back, making a mockery of devolution by handing Cameron permission to change our devolved water laws- stealing our water independence, making a mockery of everyone in Scotland and the UK claiming they don't do deals with Tories during the referendum and the general election.
SNP leadershp also lied to Scotland about the Anglian Water contract, and they also claimed they would stop all PFI and scrap the council tax and having done neither, despite being in office for 9 years, with SNP instead turning Scotland into a PFI monopoly board and rolling out £30 billion more PFI right now!
And it's not just our water being poisoned by CBM, UCG and fracking - a perfect storm for Scotland's water we have to worry about.
Fracking requires lots of water. Scotland has no shortage of water, yet in 2013 the SNP government used a new bill, the Water Resources (Scotland) Act 2013 to place water abstraction restrictions on the entire Scottish economy, including the Whisky Industry and Farmers livestock and Edinburgh Zoo and Golf Courses - but they made frackers exempt.
By January 2015 the Scottish government, via SEPA lambasted Scottish business for not keeping to their new water abstraction restrictions, this despite the fact it was the wettest year in history since records began.
When word got out, the SNP ministers tried to use "national security" to stop the Herald newspaper revealing this to the nation - so desperate were they to keep their water restrictions secret.
SNP have made it law that Scotland's entire economy's water needs should be sacrificed to ensure water is conserved for fracking - and for diverting much of Scotland's water down to England in the future so that can be fracked too (as they are short of water).
I wrote to my MSP, Housing and Welfare Minister Margaret Burgess, to ask is fracking , UCG and CBM mining (whichthey all are) and so exempt from your new water abstraction restrictions placed on every other business. She refused to answer and said she would get "the government" to answer instead"
The official government response to the simple question "is fracking (and UCG and CBM) mining and so exempt from water abstraction restrictions in Part 2 Clause 7 (4) of your Water Resources (Scotland) act was
"We cannot give that legal advise"
What legal advise, I asked a simple question about a law put in place by the SNP government - if they don't know what the word mining means - then why did they go to such bother to make it exempt from their new water restrictions.
Or is it, they know exactly what it means but they just don't want to answer questions about their own law that made fracking exempt from their new water restrictions.
Is making fracking exempt from water restrictions placed on the entire Scottish economy the action of a party and a government who are against fracking?
And SNP have stated they plan, like David Cameron to streamline planning laws after the election - is that so they can make sure councillors cannot stop the frackers with SNP planning to break up councils and make them smaller making it harder again and ensuring smaller councils cannot have the big expert planning departments required or the funds to fight the huge legal bills that will come when the fracking planning applications start rolling if and when SNP lift the moratorium and authorise UCG, Fracking and CBM for the entire central belt of Scotland - where 80% of us live..
And with SNP also planning to roll out David Cameron's policy to take all schools out of council control and put local businessmen in charge, will Ineos directors sit on the boards of local schools and make no objection to streamlined planning applications to erect fracking wells next to schools they now control completely - while SNP are economical with the truth about this too - claiming their plan is to give communities and parents and headteachers more say in running schools - with no mention of the Clackmannanshire announcement that made clear it would be local business people in control with maybe a councillor sitting on the board with no power to vote.
Combine all this - is that the actions of a party that plan to ban fracking or the actions of a party, who have already betrayed Scotland's trust at the referendum, on PFI, on council tax, on schools and selecting experts who have a vested interest in fracking as their choice of advisors to claim it is safe with Ineos and Cluff Natural Resources say they have been assured SNP leadership support their fracking and UCG nightmare for 80% of Scotland's population.
Remember - Scottish Greens, Labour, Lib Dems, Rise and Solidarity are united to ban fracking and UCG if between them they win the Scottish Election in a few weeks time.
SNP and Tories both say they could frack and burn Scotland under our feet after the election - if they get the power between them.
Your only way to stop it is with your vote at the Scottish elections - otherwise you will be fighting in court and facing heafty fines if you try fighting on fracking barricades after the election you will be treated the same way Thatcher treated the miners - they were fighting for their jobs - you will be fighting for your life.
This picture from the Socialist Worker's story revealing "Thatcher planned to send in troops to break miners Newly released government documents shed light on secret Tory plans to target miners.
This UCG plot was hatched when Thatcher was in power, and the plan was, for the Tories to shut down mines, survey all coal in Britain, so the Tory party could steal the lot in the future by awarding their own fundraisers and Lords and Ladies of Britain UCG Licenses to steal the nation's heritage of billions of tons of coal - so only the Tories and the Lords and Ladies of Britain get the benefits for 50 generations to come - making them and their families £billionaires- while they force us to eat from food parcels.
The word theft is to steal someone else's posessions, to deprive them of the benefits it should bring them - our coal.
Treason means betraying your country and your people - and that is exactly what every single SNP MSP and some of their new MP's, led by Alex Salmond are guilty of because I wrote to Mhari Black and Philippa Whiteford with all the details of the UCG and water treachery and they both stayed silent too - just another two people, in my now un humble opinion who have sold their soul to be part of the breed of greed who serve only the 1%.
Below : The Legal Threat made to try to silence me - by directors of Five Quarter - where the Duke of Bucclech's company, had a major shareholding and had his (and his fellow Lords and Ladie's of Britain's) representative on the board - you may need to zoom in on your browser to be able to read it.
