Monday, 14 October 2013

Wrongmove.org - anti-fracking

Great idea from Greenpeace: "It is unlawful for fracking companies to drill under your home without your permission. Search your postcode and join the legal block today to protect your home and community from fracking."

Go to http://wrongmove.org/ and register your home!

About the ‘Not For Shale’ legal block

The 'Not for Shale' legal block is a campaign by Greenpeace to support residents in fracking-affected communities to challenge the Government and the companies trying to drill in their immediate area.
Through wrongmove.org, residents can refuse permission to frack under their homes, even if companies have made, or are already making plans to drill there.
Fracking is a form of fossil fuel extraction that involves horizontal drilling. Fracking companies can drill up to two miles from a drill site, meaning operations regularly pass under people’s homes and farmland.
But in English law, if you own land then your rights extend to all the ground beneath it. The Supreme Court held in 2010 in Bocardo SA v Star Energy [2010] UKSC 35; [2011] 1 AC 380 that these rights apply when someone wants to drill underneath your land. That means that if someone drills under your home without permission, or without a statutory right, it is a trespass and trespass is unlawful.
In Scotland, people also have very substantial and complex property rights, so the situation will be even more difficult for fracking companies to get around.
The more people who explicitly say that they do not permit drilling to take place under their house or land, the harder it is for companies to ignore the law – and the clearer it is to government that people do not want the country to be put ‘up for shale’.
Recent newspaper reports suggest that fracking companies are worried that the law as it stands could stop or delay them from drilling. They are lobbying the government to change the law so that they can go ahead and drill without the consent of residents.

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