Bloomberg: U.K. Shale Exploration Should Resume, Environment Agency Says

Exploration of shale-gas resources by companies including Cuadrilla Resources Ltd. should resume after an investigation into hydraulic fracturing, the U.K.’s Environment Agency said.

“There are significant environmental risks associated with shale gas as there are with other industrial activities,” Tony Grayling, head of climate change and communities at the agency, told delegates at a conference in Durham, England, yesterday. “We think those risks can be managed.”

Grayling’s comments come before a report from the Department of Energy and Climate Change that will rule on whether a moratorium on so-called fracking will be lifted after Cuadrilla said it caused two small earthquakes last year. The report will be published and open for public consultation “soon,” he said in an interview, without elaborating.  MORE