“Shale Gas and Fracking” – an assessment

The CofE briefing “Shale Gas and Fracking”

The recent Briefing Paper on Shale Gas and Fracking (“the briefing”) was commissioned by the  CofE’s Mission and Public Affairs Council (MPA) and Environment Working Group “to help understand a ‘live’, and contentious, issue about which there are many strong feelings on different sides, both in the church and in the wider community“.

Welcomed by United Kingdom Onshore Oil and Gas (UKOOG), the trade body representing  the onshore oil and gas industry in the UK, the initial media perceptions were that the Church of England was tentatively backing fracking – a stance which is at odds with Christian Aid, Operation Noah, other “Christian environmentalists”, the Green Party, and some within the local groups potentially affected. Continue reading