The Ecologist: One more heave! Ministers' pre-election fracking drive
Ministers are determined to get fracking under way in the UK as fast as possible, so it's a 'fait accompli' in time for the election, writes Alex Stevenson. With a firm pro-fracking concensus in Parliament, only one thing can frustrate their plans - strong local campaigns to turn around MPs desperate for re-election in 2015. It even has a name: democracy.
The biggest threat to ministers' fracking plans comes from backbenchers representing rural constituencies across England's green and pleasant land - most of which are Conservative.
It's a question of fear. What secretly worries pro-fracking Conservative ministers, The Ecologist has learned, is that a Labour administration in power after 2015 might reverse the current coalition's efforts to make widespread fracking possible across the UK.