Fracking

Joining me now is the Conservative MP Bim Afolami – who’s on the all party Climate Change committee, Cat Smith who’s the MP for Lancaster and Fleetwood – neighbouring the Cuadrilla fracking site – and the Green party co-leader Jonathan Bartley.

The Government has called a temporary halt to fracking in England – after a report cast doubt on the ability to predict earthquakes linked to the process. Environmental campaigners welcomed the U-turn – but joined opposition parties in calling for a permanent ban – while Labour dismissed the Government’s move as an ‘election stunt’.

Fracking company Cuadrilla warns that safety rules on earthquakes, which result from fracking, are too strict and must be relaxed.

A High Court judge has upheld a wide-ranging injunction which prevents unlawful protests against fracking operations by the petrochemical giant INEOS. However, in what the protestors claimed as a partial victory, harassment has been removed from the order, which they had described as “draconian”. The injunction threatens jail or financial penalties against anyone who unlawfully…

A south Yorkshire village will take on the Swiss petrochemical giant INEOS over a wide-ranging injunction to protect its fracking operations.

The claims were stark: that chemicals used in fracking could cause cancer, or that drinking water might be contaminated. Now the advertising watchdog says Friends of the Earth has agreed to stop repeating what it called “misleading” claims about fracking.

Fracking could reduce house prices, increase traffic, noise and damage the landscape in rural communities, according to a government report which has now been published in full.

Mining giant Cuadrilla is denied permission to start exploratory drilling and fracking at a site between Preston and Blackpool.

Fracking takes a pasting from tumbling oil prices, while two planned drilling projects are denied permission near Blackpool – is it just a minor setback, or is the mood really turning?

Chemicals giant Ineos is to invest hundreds of millions of pounds in shale gas exploration, giving the industry a huge boost.

Anti-fracking campaigners pitch up in Blackpool to protest against Cuadrilla’s plans to drill two potential shale gas sites. But the company says they have little local support.

The government’s decision to allow oil and gas exploration companies to bid for licenses for fracking raises environmental questions and concern for the future of Britain’s national parks.