Communities fighting onshore oil and gas
One year ago today we won a landmark climate victory in the Supreme Court.
The case, which campaigner Sarah Finch brought on behalf of the Weald Action Group, concerned planning permission that Surrey County Council had granted for a small oil site at Horse Hill in Surrey.
Continue reading “One year on: reflections on our landmark legal victory”
Following our Supreme Court win last year, the government has been forced to rethink its approach to consenting new oil and gas developments in the North Sea.
Today they issued new guidance for oil and gas companies which means that when seeking consent for new developments, they must now reveal the amount of CO2 that will be released from burning the oil and gas they plan to extract.
The Weald Action Group responded to the government’s recent consultation on widespread policy changes that will determine the future of energy production in the North Sea.
While primarily about the North Sea, the consultation also covered onshore oil and gas production too. (The onshore part relates to England only, unlike the rest of the consultation.)
Continue reading “The future of energy production in the North Sea and beyond: our response”
Our victory in the Supreme Court last June (Finch on behalf of the Weald Action Group v. Surrey County Council) has had far-reaching results for the UK fossil fuel sector.
Within weeks of the Judgment, the impacts began to be seen at other sites. One of the first was Biscathorpe in Lincolnshire. On 11 July 2024, the government and the oil company, Egdon Resources, conceded a High Court challenge against oil production there. As in the ‘Finch’ case, the carbon emissions from the use of the oil had not been taken into account when planning permission was granted on appeal.
Now the case has gone back to the Planning Inspectorate for redetermination. This will be the first time an application for fossil fuel production will be considered following the landmark Supreme Court judgment.
Continue reading “First formal assessment of carbon emissions from burning oil: have your say”
The 2024 Supreme Count judgment on the case Weald Action Group’s Horse Hill case is a key factor
Scotland’s Court of Session has today ruled that the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields were approved unlawfully. Consent for their development has been quashed.
A new study by UCL researchers suggests that oil production at Horse Hill well may have triggered a series of over 100 small earthquakes in Surrey during 2018 and 2019.
Monitoring by seismologists plotted the epicentres between Newdigate and Charlwood, just 3km from the Horse Hill drill site and 8km from Brockham.
Continue reading “UCL Researchers Link Surge in Surrey Earthquakes to Oil Drilling”
The UK government is developing new guidance on environmental impact assessments for new offshore oil and gas projects. This is a direct result of our win in the Supreme Court.
Thanks to our campaign on the Horse Hill oil extraction site in Surrey, fossil fuel developers and regulators can no longer ignore the huge climate pollution caused by burning the oil and gas they produce. And that applies equally to the North Sea fields. From now on, when companies apply to develop oil and gas fields, they must include a full assessment of these emissions (called “Scope 3”) in their Environmental Statements, and OPRED (the Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning) must take them into account before approving any new drilling. The UK is not approving new offshore oil and gas fields while the new guidance is being developed.
The government consulted on its draft and the Weald Action Group submitted a response to the consultation.
Sarah Finch, who brought the brought the legal case on Horse Hill, on behalf of the Weald Action Group, also submitted a response.
Campaigners at the Weald Action Group have written to Surrey County Council asking them to put a stop notice on the sale of any oil produced at the Horse Hill oil site since the Supreme Court quashed planning permission for activities on the site on 20 June 2024.
We requested the council to draft the stop notice in such a way that profits made from the sale of any oil that might be produced in contravention of it could be subject to a confiscation order under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
Surrey climate campaigner receives international recognition.
Climate campaigner Sarah Finch, who won a landmark and far-reaching legal victory in the UK Supreme Court earlier this year, has been named by TIME as one of the 100 most innovative leaders driving climate change [1].
Following widespread outrage at UK Oil & Gas PLC (UKOG) continuing to produce oil at Horse Hill without planning permission, we are pleased that they have now suspended operations.
But we are appalled that it took protests by Extinction Rebellion, news coverage by Drill or Drop, Channel 4 and BBC Surrey, questions from the local MP and the threat of legal action by Friends of the Earth to bring them to this conclusion.