Our Forth is campaigning for :
- Underground Coal Gasification to be immediately included in the Scottish Government Moratorium on Unconventional Gas Extraction.
- This Moratorium to become a complete ban on Unconventional Gas Extraction in Scotland.
- A 2km buffer zone between any Unconventional Gas developments and communities be set to take immediate effect, irrespective of any decision taken in the future by the Scottish Government.
IMPORTANT UPDATE ON UCG BAN
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On the 6th of October the Scottish Government finally banned UCG in Scotland. Information about this tremendous occasion is at the News page, but I’ll change that and put a link in here.
http://www.ourforth.org/celebrate-ucg-banned-6th-october-2016/
I still have to edit this. I will update the page to include comments from tonight’s Our Forth meeting. I should be home to update at 22:00 this evening 06/10/2016. If you use facebook there are many links on Scotland against Fracking and the Our Forth facebook pages that give the whole story. Drill or drop has coverage too.
Please complete our petition below:
What is Underground Coal Gasification (UCG)?
Underground coal gasification (UCG) is a process of Unconventional Gas Extraction, similar to the more well known “fracking”. UCG converts coal into gaseous fuel. Pairs of wells are drilled to access coal seams: one to partially ignite the coal using oxygen or steam, and the second to extract the resulting gas.
Why is this an issue in the Firth of Forth?
There are large reserves of coal in seams under the Firth of Forth, inaccessible to traditional mining techniques. It’s this coal that was mined from the collieries on the Lothian and Fife sides of the Forth for hundreds of years. The coal Authority has sold the licenses to this coal to private companies. This industry will directly affect everyone who lives and works around or cares about the Firth of Forth.
The risks
This is an unproven technology, considered to be far riskier than fracking. The risks of severe environmental damage are high. There can be poisonous leaks and subsidence. This could risk public health in our densely populated area. Scotland’s coal seams are already heavily faulted and mined, increasing the potential for risking ground water contamination, leaks, underground fires and subsidence.
But isn’t there a ban?
The Scottish Government has imposed a moratorium on fracking and coal bed methane developments in Scotland. But UCG is not currently covered by this temporary ban.
Once again the link to our petition is below:
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/no-ucg-in-our-forth
Our web flier is available here
If you would like to distribute printed fliers for our campaign, you can download an A5 NO UCG flier ready to print here. Front and back
You can also find out more about our concerns about UCG here.