SIR, In the Queen's speech last week it was announced that the Government is seeking to change the trespass laws to allow companies to drill under people's homes and property without their permission. This is expressly to facilitate hydraulic fracturing (fracking). Fracking is a method of extracting methane gas from shale rock and has been used in parts of America but has been banned in some other countries, including France. I'm no expert but, if you drill holes into rock under densely populated areas, then pump large quantities of water, toxic chemicals and sand into them at high pressure with the express purpose of cracking the earth's crust, you are asking for trouble. How can anyone give any meaningful assurances that the toxic, carcinogenic chemicals will not eventually leak out into the environment? It has also now been proven that fracking has been responsible for causing minor earth tremors in some areas where it has been implemented. More information on fracking can be found at http://www.frackfreewales.org">www.frackfreewales.org Unfortunately, Monmouthshire is a prime fracking area and licenses for test drilling have already been made available in some parts. Our MP David Davies is strongly in favour of fracking and has urged the UK government to accelerate its fracking programme. However, this law has not yet been passed and we have the opportunity to lobby Mr Davies to ask him to vote against this Bill when it is introduced. When our weather systems are already being affected by climate change, it makes absolutely no sense to seek out unconventional methods of extracting yet more climate damaging shale gas when Wales has an abundance of clean, safe renewable energy available. Ann Were (Monmouth)