Theresa May to pay upto £13,000 to families who stay on sources of shale gas

Theresa May has taken over as Prime Minister of Britain three weeks back and she has already taken several major decisions like scrapping the climate change department and, threatening to scupper the Hinkley Point nuclear power plant deal with China and France. She now plans to transform her predecessor David Cameron’s cautious fracking rewards scheme.
It seems she wants to offer five-figure cash payouts under a radical plan to boost the drive for controversial shale gas fracking. This Lottery-style ‘Frackpot’ windfall scheme is all about paying individual householders cash sums (this could be as high as £13,000) if they are living in areas where the gas can be extracted.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 7 August 2016.

This move by the new Prime Minister marks a major shift in policy from David Cameron’s blueprint for Britain’s energy needs. She is hopeful that her bold post-Brexit plan would open the doors to access the untapped energy reserve of Britain and give a boost to the economy.
However, it may not be plain sailing because environmental critics could argue that it is a sort of ‘bribe’ which could undermine local democracy. Councillors who are opposed to fracking could find themselves under pressure from voters who would be keen to get their share of the fracking lottery.
As per the existing proposals for fracking - sums of up to £10million in each affected area were to be taken from business rates paid by fracking firms and given to town halls and community groups. However, the new plan envisages diversion of all or some of that money to individuals to ensure that ordinary families ‘personally benefit from economic decisions’. The decision could be a game-changer in the politically explosive energy sector because it could override the green lobby’s fierce opposition to fracking.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org


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