High court approves fracking in North Yorkshire
The UK high court has ruled that fracking can take place in the Ryedale area of North Yorkshire. Environmental groups Friends of the Earth and Frack Free Ryedale had claimed that the local council had previously failed to consider the environmental impact of the technology when approving it earlier this year. Energy company Third Energy will now carry out tests to determine whether shale gas can be extracted from the site. Only two sites have so far been approved for fracking in the UK, with a third decision expected in the near future.

Fracking will go ahead at a North Yorkshire site after environmentalists lost a legal challenge they had brought on climate change grounds.

On Tuesday, the high court ruled against Friends of the Earth and Frack Free Ryedale, who had argued that North Yorkshire county council had failed to properly consider the environmental impact of burning gas when it approved the fracking this year.

Mrs Justice Lang sided with the council in her judgment, meaning energy company Third Energy is now free to use the controversial method of extracting shale gas at the village of Kirby Misperton, in the Ryedale district.

“I’m obviously disappointed in the verdict but it doesn’t end here. There is no support in North Yorkshire for this risky industry,” said Jackie Cray, a retired vicar from Kirby Misperton, and claimant in the case. She vowed to continue to campaign against fracking in the area.



Donna Hume, a campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: “The judge found that North Yorkshire councillors had assessed the impacts of climate change. But we know that climate change was barely mentioned at that crucial council meeting where the decision to allow fracking was taken, and more damningly, that councillors didn’t have the information about the total carbon emissions produced from the fracking project.”



The green group, which was ordered to pay £10,000 in costs, said it would not appeal the decision. The Green Party called the ruling a “bitter blow” and the Liberal Democrats said it was “bitterly disappointing.” Greenpeace warned that “fracking companies shouldn’t underestimate the strength of feeling on this issue.”

Third Energy welcomed the judgment and said it looked forward to establishing whether gas could be produced from the site. “The permission places a great obligation on Third Energy to prove that we can carry out the test fracs in the same safe, discreet and environmentally sensitive way that we have conducted our gas exploration and energy generation activities over the past two decades,” said chief executive Rasik Valand.

“We are confident that we will prove to the local community that their elected representatives were right to grant this permission.”

The company had hoped to hydraulically fracture the site this year, but the delay caused by the judicial review means fracking is unlikely to begin until 2017. Unlike some other exploratory shale gas sites, the well has already been drilled. The actual fracking process – which involves pumping water, sand and chemicals underground at high pressure to release natural gas – will take about six weeks.

Fracking has so far been approved at only two sites in the UK: Kirby Misperton and Preston New Road in the Fylde, Lancashire. A government decision on a third site, also in the Fylde, is expected soon.