U.K. approves gas fracking

The U.K. government Monday backed the exploration of shale gas nearly one year after it temporarily banned the drilling method which triggered two earthquakes in Britain but that has also revolutionized the U.S. energy market.

An expert report commissioned by the government said shale gas fracking was safe to resume with tighter rules on seismic monitoring and drilling surveys.

“The risk of seismic activity associated with hydraulic fracking operations is small and the probability of damage is extremely small,” one of the report’s authors, the British Geological Society’s Brian Baptie, said at a briefing.