Households across an estimated 6,000 square miles of England – an area the size of Yorkshire – are expected to learn within days that their areas have been earmarked for possible fracking. Ministers are preparing to award energy companies licences to explore for shale gas and oil, in an attempt to kick-start the fledgling UK fracking industry. Estimates suggest there could be 1,300 trillion cubic feet of gas trapped in the rocks deep beneath the Bowland. If just 10 per cent could be extracted, it could meet Britain’s annual gas demand for more than 40 years. --Emily Gosden, The Daily Telegraph, 14 August 2015