I WAS very disappointed by Dr Keith Baker’s analysis article on fracking (“Costs and risks far outweigh the short-term benefits of this process”, The Herald, January 10). If he was trying to convince the readership that fracking by Ineos is a bad idea then I am afraid he failed as far as I was concerned.
He says initially that the fossil fuel industry needs to be reduced to enable us to meet a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. I agree, but unfortunately Ineos is not a fossil fuel supplier. It is a chemical manufacturing company. It uses fracked gas from the United States to make polymers, synthetic oils, and solvents, among many others. Burning their fracked gas would be destroying their raw material. Dr Baker then suggests that fracking may be unsafe in that contamination of the ground water is too risky and it would affect our whisky industry. I wonder from where he thinks our whisky industry gets its water? My impression from the various whisky distillers is that their water comes from Highland springs and burns, definitely not from groundwater.
If the Scottish Government has reached its conclusion to ban fracking by Ineos based on incorrect information such as suggested by Dr Baker then perhaps it needs to look at some facts rather than a conflation of disparate opinions to reach a conclusion.
I wait with interest Ineos’s proposed legal action against the Scottish Government.
Colin Gunn,
259 Kingsacre Road, Glasgow.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel