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The headline “New York warning over Lancashire County Council fracking vote” appeared on the BBC news website this weekend, above a report about how “850 legislators” from New York City had sent a letter to Lancashire County Council, urging them to ditch plans to allow fracking to occur in the northern English county.
“Wow!” one might think, “Lawmakers from the Big Apple paying attention to a comparatively small British county… this must REALLY mean that fracking is bad!”
Well, that’s what the BBC wanted you to think anyway. But a quick look into the letter that has come from the “non-partisan” group calling itself “Elected Officials to Protect New York” reveals that once again, the BBC has either been duped, or has willfully misrepresented the letter. The truth is, it has just 10 signatories. They’re all left-wing Democrats. And they’re all basically the equivalent of British, parish councillors – representing no more than about 75,000 people between them, across little villages and counties in the outskirts of New York State. Oh and one of them is a “former council member”.