Britain would be 'mad' to ban fracking

Britain is dependent on gas to meet its energy needs. Can we really afford not to frack?

An attempt to impose a moratorium on fracking failed in the Commons this week, but only after some last-minute concessions by the government. These included a ban on fracking in national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty (some of our biggest shale reserves are thought to be in protected areas, such as the South Downs and the North York Moors).

"Had the vote been passed it might have sounded the death knell for fracking before it had even got off the ground," says The Daily Telegraph. But while the "anti-fracking lobby will take heart" from the government's concessions, the reality is that the coalition "has put in place a robust regulatory regime for shale extraction".

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Emily Hohler
Politics editor

Emily has worked as a journalist for more than thirty years and was formerly Assistant Editor of MoneyWeek, which she helped launch in 2000. Prior to this, she was Deputy Features Editor of The Times and a Commissioning Editor for The Independent on Sunday and The Daily Telegraph. She has written for most of the national newspapers including The Times, the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, The Evening Standard and The Daily Mail, She interviewed celebrities weekly for The Sunday Telegraph and wrote a regular column for The Evening Standard. As Political Editor of MoneyWeek, Emily has covered subjects from Brexit to the Gaza war.

Aside from her writing, Emily trained as Nutritional Therapist following her son's diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes in 2011 and now works as a practitioner for Nature Doc, offering one-to-one consultations and running workshops in Oxfordshire.