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Don’t Like Fracking? Too Bad, Your Tax Money Funds It Anyway
by Michaela Whitton | ANTIMEDIA
United Kingdom — The environmentally destructive fracking industry is set to industrialise the countryside — and contribute to climate change — a move made all the more lamentable by the U.K. government’s incentivization of the practice, offering tax breaks to the fossil fuel companies involved. Despite significant threats to health, water and wildlife from the pollutive industry, millions of pounds that would otherwise be paid in taxes might be spent in the dangerous hunt for shale gas.
In addition to watching the environment suffer, taxpayers will also be forced to subsidise it, according to a troubling investigation by Greenpeace’s Energydesk. That report revealed U.K. taxpayers could spend millions funding fracking — or “hydraulic fracturing.” The dangerous process to extract shale gas pumps a combination of water, sand, and a cocktail of chemicals into the earth at high pressures to fracture rock, releasing gases trapped deep underground. The tax breaks are set to benefit firms investing in fracking and oil and gas production by providing enhanced capital allowances in order to reduce their taxable profit, Energydesk reports.
While the shale gas industry often boasts of mass job creation, Friends of the Earth has said the claims are overstated and that any boom to jobs would be short-lived. The organisation’s 2015 report, “Making a better job of it,” showed investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy would create more jobs than more investment in fossil fuels.
Philosophers stone – selected views from the boat http://philosophers-stone.co.uk
Source: http://www.philosophers-stone.co.uk/?p=11604
