Even Putin Hasn’t Broken European Green Fanaticism

D isruptions related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have shown the folly of governments’ meddling with energy markets to prioritize “green” energy policies above all else. Yet some parts of Europe refuse to learn this obvious lesson. Look at the U.K., whose government just lifted regulations shuttering the process in the wake of Russian energy blackmail. Under pressure from environmentalists, however, Scotland and Wales will continue banning hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for oil and natural gas. This prioritizing of green pieties over energy needs will have terrible consequences for these self-hobbling nations.

Putin’s invasion of Ukraine made the U.K. government’s recent decision to lift its 2019 ban on fracking not just obvious, but necessary. The unfolding energy crisis in Europe triggered by Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has caused natural-gas and electricity prices on the continent to spike. In late August 2020, a megawatt hour of natural-gas power cost around eight euros. That peaked at €278 on August 22, an increase of 3,376 percent. To address the problem, new prime minister Liz Truss said she wants the U.K. to “use more of our energy supply, including more oil and gas from the North Sea and nuclear power,” as well as “get gas flowing in as soon as six months, where there is local support.” In addition to national-security reasons, there would be plenty of economic benefits for the U.K. to start tapping into the estimated 26 trillion cubic feet of shale-gas reserves available there. This requires, however, that all constituent countries of the U.K. lift the fracking ban, which is currently — stupidly — not in the offing.

Set against such worthy ambitions are Greenpeace and other prominent environmental groups, which have been trying to keep fracking banned for years because of alleged harmful environmental affects. The prospect of remaining deeply dependent on Putin for energy doesn’t seem to even faze these environmentalists, who consider the geopolitical consequences an acceptable price for “green” energy virtue-signaling. “BREAKING: Scotland will KEEP its ban on fracking. Climate common sense from the Scottish Government,” the environmental group Greenpeace recently tweeted. The devolved Scottish and Welsh governments, as well as Truss’s opposition in the left-wing Labour Party, are also officially opposed to fracking.

Radical environmentalists have consistently supported fracking bans for years, and refuse to adapt their position to the current geopolitical — and scientific — reality. How is what Greenpeace is saying today different from what the organization said in 2016, when one of its representatives endorsed a statement arguing that “fracking poses risks to people and the environment, and politicians in Westminster shouldn’t force this risky technology on any community?” Such claims, in addition to ignoring the pressing situation on the continent, substitute appeals to emotion for sound evidence. The British Geological Survey has investigated allegations such as those voiced by Greenpeace and has found no evidence to substantiate them. Studies have shown the major environmental objections to fracking aren’t substantive. Fracking doesn’t contaminate drinking water or cause the kinds of earthquakes anyone can feel. And research by the U.K.’s own Department of Energy & Climate Change indicates that fracking would barely increase the U.K.’s greenhouse-gas emissions.

Misguided commitment to principle explains some environmentalists’ bitter clinging to their goals despite evidence and changing realities. But some groups push debunked anti-fracking claims in part because they have been “engaged actively” with the government of Russia, in the words of former NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Even Hillary Clinton once complained about “phony environmental groups . . . funded by the Russians” to discourage European nations from fracking.

And Russia itself has been promoting anti-fracking propaganda for years. A declassified 2017 U.S. intelligence report states that:

RT runs anti-fracking programming, highlighting environmental issues and the impacts on public health. This is likely reflective of the Russian Government’s concern about the impact of fracking and US natural gas production on the global energy market and the potential challenges to Gazprom’s [Russian state-run energy conglomerate’s] profitability.

Unfortunately, most countries in Europe, including Germany, France, and Spain, still ban fracking outright. By choosing to remain in their company, Scotland and Wales aren’t just bowing to faulty environmentalist pressure. They are showing that the Kremlin’s anti-fracking manipulation campaign is still working. If only they could realize that, although the earth doesn’t benefit from fracking bans, Putin does.