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Public Support for Fracking in UK Hits Record Low

© AFP 2023 / LEON NEALActivists attend an anti-fracking rally outside the Houses of Parliament in central London
Activists attend an anti-fracking rally outside the Houses of Parliament in central London - Sputnik International
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Public support for fracking for shale gas in the United Kingdom has hit its lowest point since 2013, a government survey published on Tuesday revealed.

Demonstrators hold up placards as they take part in an anti-fracking protest outside the Palace of Westminster in London. - Sputnik International
Fracking Laid Bare: Censored UK Government Report Finally Released
MOSCOW (Sputnik) The poll was conducted by the Department of Energy and Climate Change in late June amid debate over whether to permit fracking at two sites in Lancashire, a county in North West England.

According to the poll, only 21 percent of respondents expressed support for the controversial shale gas extracting technique, the lowest level since the agency first surveyed Britons on the issue in December 2013.

A total of 28 percent opposed fracking, which is "a reversal of the findings when these questions were first asked [in December 2013], when 27% supported it against 21% that opposed it," the poll revealed.

Almost half of the public — 46 percent — said they neither supported nor opposed fracking.

Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is a technique used to extract shale gas and oil by injecting a mixture of chemicals into the ground at high pressure.

Environmentalists strongly criticize the technique, arguing that it exposes the environment to the risk of leakages and spillages of poisonous liquid materials and fracking fluids making their way into groundwater supplies.

In 2011, hydraulic fracturing in Lancashire caused two earth tremors, leading to a temporary fracking ban in the United Kingdom that was lifted the following year.

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