Task Force on Shale Gas

This article is part of the Spinwatch Fracking Portal and project

The UK Task Force on Shale Gas is an industry-funded group set up in October 2014.

In its own words, it aims to be 'a transparent, trusted, independent and impartial platform for public scrutiny, discussion and information about shale gas exploration and production in the UK”.

It is headed by Lord Chris Smith, a Labour peer who is former shadow environment secretary and a former chair of the UK Environment Agency.

The task force's first report, on the local impacts of shale gas, was published in March 2015 and a second report in July 2015.

People

• Lord Smith is the founding chair of the Task Force. He served the Environment Agency as chair from 2008 to 2014 and has been chair of the Advertising Standards Authority since 2006. He is a former shadow environment secretary.
• Professor Ernest Rutter. Professor of Structural Geology at the University of Manchester School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences. 'His research includes studies of natural rock fracture and flow through field studies, plus laboratory-based experimental rock mechanics and petrophysics, aimed at understanding rock behaviour in nature and under engineering conditions. The latter has implications for the stability of excavations and boreholes employed in the exploitation of natural resources, and the flow of fluids though rocks'.

Former panel members

• Baroness Patience Wheatcroft was a task force member when it launched but had resigned by the following month, ostensibly to concentrate on other activities. Wheatcroft is a former non-executive director of Barclays plc, which has financial interests in shale gas.

Advisory experts

• Stephen Tindale is a climate and energy consultant and associate fellow at the Centre for European Reform. He also runs the website Climate Answers. Previous roles have included being head of communications and public affairs for RWE npower renewables, Executive Director of Greenpeace UK and chairman of the Greenpeace European Unit, adviser to environment minister Michael Meacher, founder of IPPR Environment Group and adviser to shadow environment secretary Chris Smith.
• Professor Sarah O’Hara Pro-Vice Chancellor and Professor of Geography at the University of Nottingham, where she is currently co-director of the University of Nottingham Shale Gas Survey which explores public perceptions of shale gas extraction in the UK.

Funding

The Task Force on Shale Gas' website states that 'it undertakes never to represent the views of funders, whether from industry or other stakeholder groups, to the government or the media'.

Responsibility for ensuring impartiality and independence from funders is vested in the Task Force Chair, Lord Chris Smith. Funders receive a report of Task Force activities and progress from the Chair every 6 months.

The Task Force has so far received £650,000 in funding from these companies:

• Cuadrilla
• Centrica
• Dow
• Total
• The Weir Group
• GDF SUEZ E&P UK Ltd

Lobbying firms

• Edelman manages the Task Force's Secretariat.

Reports

• First interim report, on Planning, Regulation and Local Engagement, 25 March 2015.

Contact

Task Force on Shale Gas Secretariat and Registered Office:

3rd Floor, Southside, 105 Victoria Street, London SW1E 6QT

Website:http://www.shaletaskforce.uk/about-the-task-force

Registered company number 9171842

Resources

See: Fracking Spads

See: Fracking lobbying firms

• Melissa Jones and Andy Rowell, Access all areas: Westminster's (vast) fracking lobby exposed, 29 April 2015.