Fracking? Bloody Right!

Kudos to the Brits for getting on with it and lifting the ban on fracking and opening the way for economic development, energy diversity, and a more efficient-lower emission future.

UK Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey announced Thursday that the government has allowed the resumption of exploratory hydraulic fracturing (fracking), but any fracking activities would be subject to new controls to mitigate the risks of seismic activity.

The news follows the Chancellor of the Exchequer's Autumn Statement on Dec.5 in which he announced plans to better exploit the UK's gas resources and that the Department of Energy and Climate Change would establish an Office for Unconventional Gas and Oil.

Exploratory fracking has been suspended in the UK since May 2011 after two small seismic tremors were detected neat the country's only fracking operation in the Bowland Basin to the east of Blackpool in Lancashire, northern England. On Monday this week, Rigzone reported that the British Geological Society believes shale deposits under Blackpool are 50-percent greater than previously thought at 300 trillion cubic feet of gas.