12 August 2014

@nodashforgas
07447 027112
press@nodashforgas.org.uk

 

Reclaim the Power, the action camp that shut down Cuadrilla’s operations in Balcombe for a week last year, will take place near Blackpool between 14 – 20 August. The precise location of the camp will be revealed on the starting day. An estimated 1000 participants from across the UK and local residents will take part in 6 days of direct action, training, and workshops as they join the dots between social, climate and economic justice. A press pack with details of the camp is now available:

RTP press pack

Lancashire grandmothers and mothers have been occupying a field on Preston New Road – one of Cuadrilla’s proposed drill sites – since August 7th. Local residents handed in 14,000 objections to a council consultation on Cuadrilla’s plans. Karen, a local resident participating in the occupation, said:

“I was excited by the thought of jobs and prosperity coming to Blackpool until I learned about the short-term nature of shale gas and I came to see we were being sold a con about “lower energy prices”, “energy security”, and “long-term employment”. We are being sold a brief boom and bust, with nasty long-term consequences. We need permanent solutions to our energy supply and use, not this get-rich-quick then get-the-hell-out industry.”

Hannah Jones from Reclaim the Power said:

“Reclaim the Power is coming to Lancashire to support community resistance to fracking. Our government pretends gas is a clean fuel, but we cannot afford drilling for any new fossil fuels if our children are to have a chance for a safe climate and sustainable future. Gas will only make the climate more unstable, the energy companies richer, and the rest of us poorer. We need affordable, democratically controlled, renewable energy now.”