Fracking is short for hydraulic fracturing, a technique that is used to open up shale rock, thousands of metres below the ground surface, for the purpose of releasing trapped gas and oil. The gas is predominantly methane, much the same as produced in the North Sea; the types of oil vary depending on their history. In recent years, fracking has generated much publicity as the government seeks to exploit this resource and a wide cross-section of the public has voiced its opinion that this is not the way forward for the UK's energy needs, either philosophically or practically. Even so, exploitation is the policy of all the major UK political parties and people should be knowledgeable about what the process entails, and the associated issues.
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