Businessweek: U.K. Labour Party Backs Tighter Shale Gas Rules to Ensure Safety

The U.K. should tighten regulations on shale gas extraction to ensure fracking is safe and doesn’t harm the environment, the opposition Labour Party said.

The party is seeking to amend rules on shale exploration to monitor fluids from every well, track methane levels in groundwater and assess environmental impacts for every site using hydraulic fracturing, according to Caroline Flint, the Labour lawmaker who speaks on energy.

“There is shale across huge parts of England and Wales, but even if it’s there, it may not be environmentally, or for that matter, economically beneficial to actually seek to get it out of the ground,” Flint said in an interview yesterday in London. “Secondly, even where we’re looking at different areas, it might be five years away before something is properly realized.”
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