Fracking banned in UK as government makes major U-turn
Source: The Guardian
The government has banned fracking with immediate effect in a watershed moment for environmentalists and community activists.
Ministers also warned shale gas companies it would not support future fracking projects, in a crushing blow to companies that had been hoping to capitalise on one of the new frontiers of growth in the fossil fuel industry.
The decision draws a line under years of bitter opposition to the controversial extraction process in a major victory for green groups and local communities.
The decision was taken after a new scientific study warned it was not possible to rule out “unacceptable” consequences for those living near fracking sites.
[snip]
The decision has been welcomed as a “victory for common sense” by green groups and campaigners who have fought for almost a decade against the controversial fossil fuel extraction process.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/02/fracking-banned-in-uk-as-government-makes-major-u-turn
This is HUGE!!
= new reply since forum marked as read
Thanks for the thread mysteryowl. 
as I had alway grown up learning that Great Britain was pretty much a huge island of coal (which helped to power the earliest steam ships and of course electrification). And there were recent articles at how they finally reached a point of having had a week that was "coal free" for the first time in a century.
I missed that they apparently started fracking too (probably as a replacement for the general winding down of coal use there). 
