Scotsman: Frackers label me an extremist

I am a father-of-three who lives in a small flat in Portobello and makes a modest living working for a festival. I am also an extremist, according to Andrew Nunn, chief operating officer of Cluff Natural Resources. Nunn seemed quite incensed last weekend following calls for Scotland’s moratorium on fracking to be extended to underground coal gasification (UCG), a process his company wants to introduce to the Forth.

Nunn branded community groups expressing concern about UCG as “increasingly extreme”, accusing us of spreading “an unwarranted sense of fear and unease” by focusing “on a small number of negative outcomes”.

Nunn didn’t specify which outcomes. Perhaps he meant Queensland, Australia, where there have been three UCG trials. One, by Cougar Energy, was shut down by the government in 2013 after toxic chemicals were found in cattle near the company’s plant. Cougar Energy tried to sue for $34 million (£22m) compensation, but dropped the case and was eventually fined $75,000 for releasing benzene, a cancer-causing chemical, into groundwater. Another company, Linc Energy, was charged with environmental damage last April after a nine-month investigation. UCG has now been halted in Queensland.

The bigger picture is that UCG has “potentially disastrous implications for CO2 emissions and climate change”. Are these the words of an environmental extremist? No, I’m quoting BBC business reporter Richard Anderson.

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