Image: Frack Off
After years of being pushed back by community efforts to oppose fracking, the extreme energy industry is pressing ahead with plans to extract unconventional fossil fuels across the UK. In Yorkshire, Third Energy were given the go ahead in May to frack at Kirby Misperton, although local campaign group Frack Free Ryedale and Friends of the Earth have stalled the process by forcing a judicial review. This week’s decision to approve fracking at Preston New Road in Lancashire, by Communities Secretary Sajid Javid, came as no surprise to the anti-fracking movement. A decision on a second site at Roseacre Wood was deferred and may still go ahead. With petitions, marches and legal appeals almost exhausted, we can expect to see an escalation in direct action tactics to stop the shale gas industry in its tracks.
Many other petroleum exploration development licences (PEDLs) have been allocated, with around 13,000 square miles of the country earmarked for potential fracking and some exploratory wells already drilled. Other threatened areas include Surrey, Sussex, Cheshire, Somerset and Lincolnshire. Scotland and Wales have imposed moratoriums and Northern Ireland banned fracking last year.
