Reuters: Planning labyrinth threatens Yorkshire's resources boom

In North Dakota, the home of U.S. shale gas, a would-be driller can fill out a two-page form and get the go-ahead in two days. In North Yorkshire, England, a completed application can run to 50 pages, and the process takes months.

The British Geological Survey recently estimated shale rock beneath northern England holds 1,300 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas - enough to meet UK needs for 50-70 years, assuming a 10-15 percent recovery rate. But early indications are that planning institutions and processes are not ready for a flood of applications.

The county of North Yorkshire has a coal mining history and is already home to conventional gas projects led by privately owned Moorland Energy and Third Energy in the Cleveland Basin. Part of that basin lies under the North York Moors National Park. It contains shale rock, the exploitation of which, through hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" and horizontal drilling, has transformed the U.S. energy industry.  MORE