Wednesday, February 25, 2026
Reform embracing fracking
The paper says that documents released under a freedom of information request reveal that when Egdon Resources, a British subsidiary of the US fracker Heyco Energy, announced a major gas discovery in Lincolnshire’s Gainsborough Trough last year, Jenkyns reached out personally to the company asking how she “could help with your recent gas find in my county”:
Fracking was effectively banned in England in 2019 because of concerns it could trigger earthquakes. But Jenkyns is keen to bring the practice to Lincolnshire and appears to have met fracking companies at least four times since she first contacted Egdon in June.
In a presentation marked “Confidential”, Heyco downplayed concerns about toxic chemicals found in fracking fluid. It also shared a list of rebuttals to key criticisms of fracking and its benefits over renewable forms of energy, which was tailored to the Gainsborough Trough project, the documents obtained by the Guardian show.
Jenkyns said she was “very supportive of fracking” in her message asking how she could help the company, sent to Egdon’s general inbox in June last year. The company’s CEO, Mark Abbott, responded 11 minutes later, offering to meet her to “discuss the potential for gas in Lincolnshire and the surrounding area”.
Jenkyns is a staunch critic of net zero who has described the concept as a “con” and lodged several objections to energy projects such as solar farms and pylons in Lincolnshire.
Egdon owner George Yates is a Trump donor and member of a century-old New Mexico oil and gas dynasty with strong links to the Republican party. He has previously described net zero as a pseudo-scientific approach to reducing carbon emissions and falsely blamed the UK’s high energy prices on the government’s climate policies.
An email from Abbott to Jenkyns and other Greater Lincolnshire county officials after the meeting said the group discussed “the potential of shale gas in the Gainsborough Trough” and “how to build support for its development”. The existence of the field has been known for more than a decade.
The email also included a list of next steps from the meeting. Abbott said he would explore the possibility of a visit to a US shale operation for the group and help set up a meeting with Yates and his daughter Lauren when they were next in the UK.
In a video posted to Facebook on the same day as her meeting with Abbott, Jenkyns praised the gas find, calling it a “no-brainer”.
As a party, Reform have taken the same view as Donald Trump, that net zero is a con. They have openly advocated fracking. No doubt, if they are to gain power or influence in Wales, this will be on their agenda here as well.
