Critic: Censored Report Shows UK Government has 'Something to Hide' About Fracking

“The issue is, the government is trying to railroad through fracking in the face of huge public opposition,” she continued.

“The issue is, the government is trying to railroad through fracking in the face of huge public opposition.”
—Caroline Lucas, Green Party MP

Roughly 1,000 protesters are expected to set up camp at a drilling operation run by UK fracking giant Cuadrilla outside Blackpool in north west England this week following the success of protests last summer which shut down Cuadrilla’s drilling operations in Balcombe.

And in June, widespread outcry and protests followed the announcement by Prime Minister David Cameron that the government was advancing a controversial fracking law which permits drilling for shale gas under people’s homes without permission.

The censored report was released in response to a request under the Environmental Information Regulations, which grant similar access to government information as the Freedom of Information Act or FOIA. In a letter accompanying the report, dated July 28,  a Defra spokesperson—whose name was also crossed out in the letter—writes that the information is withheld because it “relates to the formation of government policy,” and that full disclosure of the “potential impacts and scenarios around the development of the shale gas industry […] could close down discussion.”