Advertising Standards Authority overturns its previous ruling and states Greenpeace’s fracking claims were 'not materially misleading'
The UK's advertising watchdog has quashed its own previous decision to ban a Greenpeace anti-fracking advert which said "experts agree" shale gas exploration in the UK would not lead to lower energy bills.
A national newspaper advert from Greenpeace published in January last year featured an image of a house on a plot of land with a tanker lorry and drilling rig outside it, as well a cross section of the land showing a drilling pipe beneath the property.
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In addition to stating that fracking "threatens our climate, our countryside and our water" the advert asserted: "Yet experts agree - it won't cut our energy bills."
Labour peer Lord Lipsey - who sits on the Lords' Economic Affairs Committee - lodged a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), arguing Greenpeace's assertion over expert agreement on energy bills was misleading and could not be substantiated.
While on the Economic Affairs Committee, Lord Lipsey had heard evidence from a range of experts on fracking and its impact on energy bills in February 2014, and he felt there was a much greater division of expert opinion on the issue than the Greenpeace advert suggested.
Subsequently, in May last year the ASA sided with Lord Lipsey and ruled the Greenpeace advert should be banned as it was misleading.
However, following an appeal from Greenpeace against that ruling, the ASA has now climbed down from its previous position and today announced the advert was in fact "not materially misleading" and therefore not in breach of the advertising code.
"While a range of more conditional expert views also existed, the general consensus among most appeared to be that a meaningful reduction in UK domestic energy bills was highly unlikely and/or was limited to a small number of potential scenarios," the ASA's fresh ruling concluded.
Welcoming the ruling, Greenpeace fracking campaigner Hannah Martin said the ASA's previous ban was a "farcical attempt to stifle the crucial public debate on fracking, and it should never have happened".
She said the watchdog's "U-turn" was an "embarrassment... for all the industry advocates who keep touting fracking as the miracle cure to high energy bills".
"This decision will be a reminder that the benefits of fracking are, at best, uncertain whilst the side-effects are stark," said Martin. "Spoiling our countryside and increasing air pollution and climate-warming emissions are not a price worth paying for the sake of this industry. Theresa May should reverse the policies that have harmed our vibrant renewable energy sector and back the technologies that can supply homegrown energy for decades to come."
However, in an emailed statement sent to BusinessGreen Lord Lipsey maintained expert opinion was not clear cut on fracking and energy bills and said he had already appealed against the ASA's latest revised ruling.
"In view of Greenpeace's OTT reaction to the original ruling I am not surprised that [the ASA] council performed a U-turn," he said. "However, as the adviser to the Lords' Economic Affairs Committee Professor Butler [King's College London] has made clear ASA is wrong. Expert opinion is divided on whether fracking will cut energy prices."
Prime Minister, Theresa May, has suggested local residents could receive cash handouts from the government in areas where fracking takes place, but a recent YouGov poll found only 33 per cent of people would support shale gas extraction in their local area even with the prospect of direct payments to households.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) was considering BusinessGreen's request for comment at the time of going to press.
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