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Expert reaction to news that the UK’s shale gas commissioner is resigning.
Prof Peter Styles, Professor Emeritus of Applied and Environmental Geophysics, Keele University, said:
“I was part of the working group commissioned by DECC in 2012 and we proposed the original traffic light system for fracking-induced earthquakes. If they had implemented our recommendations, instead of the cartoon one DECC subsequently brought out, there would have been decision trees which would have allowed much more nuanced responses. The so called ‘trailing events’ are as predicted by our analysis that after an initial 0.5. ML event then subsequent activity would rise by one order of magnitude which is exactly what happened. We were not consulted when the OGA and Cuadrilla formulated their so-called Frack Plan. Caveat Emptor!!”
Declared interests
Prof Styles was part of the working group commissioned by DECC in 2012