Lancashire Evening Post: Fracking: A price worth paying?

What’s the truth about fracking?

As exploratory work today resumes in the county, the Lancashire Evening Post investigates whether the controversial practice of drilling for gas will be a boost or burden for the area.

Supporters say fracking will bring untold riches, while opponents think it could have disastrous ramifications for the environment.

A spokesman for Cuadrilla Resources, the firm hoping to start the drilling, said reports into a series of earth tremors caused by the process will be studied by experts at the Department for Energy and Climate Change in the coming days.

If they give the go-ahead, the process, which will see water pumped into the earth using a ‘hydraulic fracturing’ process to unlock natural gas trapped in shale rock, could resume immediately.

Today, we look at the arguments for and against a practice which company bosses say will bring at least 1,700 local jobs.

Mark Miller has seen the benefits which shale gas can offer.  MORE