UK shale gas operations safe, US-style drilling not to be used - council

摘要

LONDON (ICIS)--Exploration and potential extraction of shale gas in the UK’s northern region of Yorkshire will be done safely and hazardous products which “might have been used” in the US’ industry will not apply in England, a councillor at North Yorkshire County Council said on Wednesday. Peter Sowray, councillor in North Yorkshire and chairman of the planning committee which on 23 May approved the permit for Third Energy’s application, said the process had been looked carefully by the UK’s Environmental Agency (EA) and “gone through a democratic” process. The planning committee’s approval was passed by seven votes against four. “We were assured by the EA the chemicals to be used to extract the gas are not hazardous. We are a planning committee, we need to listen to experts,” said Sowray.