Cuadrilla censured by advertising watchdog over fracking safety claims, Advertising Standards Authority orders shale gas company to tone down claims that it uses ‘proven, safe technologies’ by Fiona Harvey, environment correspondent, April 24, 2013, guardian.co.uk
Cuadrilla, the only shale fracking company operating in the UK, has been slapped down by the advertising watchdog for claiming that it uses “proven, safe technologies”. The censure by the Advertising Standards Authority will force a significant watering down of some of the company’s claims and is a further blow to Cuadrilla, which has halted fracking at all of its UK sites following a series of setbacks. … Following the ASA ruling, the company must hedge its claims on the safety of fracking with references to “a number of important independent scientific studies” that looked at fracking. Furthermore, it can only say that “these reports have agreed that hydraulic fracturing can be done safely, given appropriate guidelines and monitoring”. Cuadrilla was also criticised by the ASA for asserting that “we know that hydraulic fracturing does not lead to contamination of the underground aquifer”. That must be changed to: “To ensure that there can be no route for fluid or gas to leak from the shale rock up to the aquifer, we use multiple layers of steel casing sealed by cement.” … Cuadrilla strongly disputes many of the ASA’s criticisms, which will be subject to appeal. For instance, the ASA said that the company could not claim its “fracturing fluid does not contain hazardous or toxic components”, because although the company has used only water, sand and a non-toxic friction-reducing chemical to date, it could use other substances in future. Cuadrilla called this “absurd and pedantic”. Francis Egan, the company’s chief executive, said: “We do believe the ASA should have consulted scientific experts before reaching its conclusions, and has made some very fine distinctions about what we can and cannot say, but we will be examining the adjudication carefully to see what communication lessons can be learned in future.” [Emphasis added]
ASA orders shale gas fracker Cuadrilla to mind its language by Utilityweek.co.uk, April 24, 2013 “Cuadrilla make great play of their commitment to a “fact-based conversation” about fracking and have even suggested that the case against fracking has been commandeered by extremists. What we can clearly see here is that the necessary “conversation” is not being distorted by extremists but by Cuadrilla themselves.”