David Cameron is making an enormous “legacy mistake” by going all-out for fracking in the UK, the actor and environmental activist Mark Ruffalo has warned.
The actor, who is famous for his role as the Hulk in the Avenger films and who stars in Spotlight about the Boston Globe’s investigation into Catholic child abuse, is a prominent anti-fracking campaigner who lobbied successfully for a ban on the controversial technology in New York.
“Mr Cameron, you’re making an enormous mistake, and it’s a legacy mistake. Because there’s no fracking that can be done safely,” he said on a recent visit to the UK.
Ruffalo also accused Cameron of going back on his word by saying he would respect public opinion on hydraulic fracturing, a method of extracting shale gas and oil that has boomed in the US over the last decade.
“Your people don’t want it. You’ve already told them once before that if they didn’t want it, you wouldn’t push them to take it, and you’re turning back on your word, sir. And what is a politician if he’s not credible,” he said in a filmed interview with green group, Friends of the Earth.
More people in the UK oppose fracking than support it, compared to renewable energy which enjoys extremely high levels of public support, government polling found last week. It revealed that: “those who know more about fracking tend to be more likely to oppose it.”
Ruffalo said the prime minister should heed the implications of the Paris agreement, a historic deal agreed last month at UN talks to curb carbon emissions, and push instead for renewable energy.
“Today we are at the precipice of a renewable energy revolution. This is the new economy,” he said. “This is where all new wealth is going to be created. This is where new jobs are going to be created.”
Since taking power last May, the government has axed or watered down a swath of green measures, including cutting solar and wind subsidies, ending favourable taxation for electric cars, and putting a carbon tax on carbon-free electricity generation.
Ruffalo, who has made similar calls on Barack Obama to ban fracking in the US, said that Cameron should honour the will of the British people. By doing so he would become a “true and honest” leader by leaving the fossil fuels in the ground, as scientists have called for to avoid dangerous global warming.
However, his plea is unlikely to move Cameron who has said fracking is important for energy security and economic growth. His government has aggressively promoted the nascent shale industry and was shown last week to be considering changing rules to take fracking planning applications out of local authorities’ hands.
An appeal hearing begins next week for shale explorer Cuadrilla, over its applications for two fracking sites in Lancashire, which were rejected by the county council last summer. The rejection was quickly followed by the government promising to “fast track” fracking applications.
A separate planning decision on a fracking site in North Yorkshire, at Kirby Misperton, was expected this month by the county council but has been delayed to March at the earliest.
Donna Hume, senior campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: “The government admits that the more people know about fracking, the more they oppose it. That’s why Mark Ruffalo, who has seen the impacts of fracking first-hand, doesn’t want Lancashire to suffer the same impacts as so many states in the US.”
A spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said: “We are backing shale because it’s good for our energy security and will help create jobs and growth.
“There is no question that we need natural gas in the UK and if just 10% of the estimated gas in shale rock could be recovered, it would be enough to meet our energy demand for almost 40 years. We are encouraging safe exploration so we can know for certain how much is there and how much we can get out of the ground.”
