[Not to scale]
The complaint now, or one of them, is that geothermal is free to do things the hydraulic fracturers weren’t allowed to do prior to their ban, and which in part led to the ban.
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Fracking companies have threatened to take legal action over the government’s ban on the practice, amid the sector’s growing frustration at being left behind the UK energy revolution, according to reports – City AM.
The sector sent “pre-action correspondence” to the government after fears prompted by earthquakes in 2019 led to a ban on drilling, according to the Telegraph, which first reported the news.
Among the fracking projects that had to be abandoned after the ban, was one financed by billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe whose company Ineos wrote off £63m in 2019.
“We support the continued development of geothermal energy in the UK,” Charles McAllister, policy manager at trade body UK Onshore Oil and Gas told the Telegraph.
“However,” he continued, “we would ask the Government to look again at lifting the moratorium on hydraulic fracturing for shale gas in light of its approach to the regulation of seismicity from deep geothermal projects.”
The move by the onshore shale gas industry raises the possibility, if legal action against the government is successful, of the public funding compensation for the industry which was curtailed after repeated attacks on its environmental impact.
Original Telegraph report here.
[may be paywalled]
Tallbloke's Talkshop 
Telegraph: Cuadrilla, which said it is not part of any potential legal action or correspondence, wrote separately to the Government early this year highlighting that more “red-light” seismic events have been recorded from geothermal work in Cornwall than at its own wells.
[…] Fracking companies threaten government with legal action over ban […]
Why are illustrations demonstrating always shown badly out of scale which is very misleading indeed.
Jim Nicolson – agreed, but in the available space it’s impossible to show an accurate scale.
Added ‘not to scale’ below the image.
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Let the government explain in court why it thinks earth tremors in lithium mining are less of a problem than in gas drilling, even when at the same (low) level.
the deliberately ignorant acolytes of the Church of the Satanic Gases have deluded themselves into believing this CAGW nonsense to the point of hysteria.
These are the NPC’s that have no analytical skills but live entire on feelings. They are certain that if they don’t stop natural gas usage we are all going to burn up or drown. Truly stupid IMAO.
Jim Nicholson & OB
BBC Fracking diagrams to illustrate what are broadly similar processes: Spot the difference:-
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14432401
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-15523635
And of course places such as the US where there’s a great deal of fracking have significant earthquake problems…
Joe P – BBC bias strikes again 🙄
Telegraph again:
Producing energy from geothermal waters is a very different process to fracking as it involves pumping hot water that already flows naturally through rocks, rather than creating fractures.
Its seismic activity is generally regulated by local authorities based on the vibrations caused at the surface. Frackers, on the other hand, faced strict limits on earthquake magnitude regardless of what was felt at ground level.
Cuadrilla argues this difference is unfair, since both risk causing earthquakes even if small. [bold added]
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Earth tremors are far smaller than earthquakes.
O/B
“Its seismic activity is generally regulated by local authorities based on the vibrations caused at the surface.”
BGS:
“Blackpool’s trams cause more perceptible vibrations than work on borehole”
A neighbour with more money than sense is currently having ground source heating installed. A large tracked vertical drilling machine, diesel driven, with a huge Compair diesel compressor to drive it, has been drilling holes in their front courtyard for a couple of weeks now with mud and oil tinged water pouring down the lane. If this is repeated by the thousands all over the UK, what impact will this have on water tables and possible tremors etc?
Phoenix44 says:
December 13, 2021 at 8:08 am
And of course places such as the US where there’s a great deal of fracking have significant earthquake problems
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1) the earthquakes existed long before the fracking
2) “fracking” did NOT cause the cluster of earthquakes
3) dumping millions of gallons of drilling mud and associated fouled water and such down old wells and mines DID cause a lubrication and weight bearing issue that stimulated the quakes. That’s right from the government, university, and industry studies of it.
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Thanks for paying. Better luck next time