LONDON, Dec 16 (Reuters) - British lawmakers on Wednesdayvoted in favour of the use of fracking to extract shale gasunder national parks, weakening a decision against fracking innational parks made earlier this year and giving shale gasexplorers access to more resources.
Britain is estimated to have substantial amounts of gastrapped in underground shale rocks and Prime Minister Cameronhas pledged to go all-out to extract these reserves, to helpoffset declining North Sea oil and gas output.
But the use of fracking, a process whereby water, sand andchemicals are injected to open up the shale rocks and releasethe trapped gas is opposed by environmental campaigners.
Britain imposed a ban on fracking inside national parks inJanuary under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalitiongovernment, in a concession to the opposition Labour Party whichhad called for tighter controls to be written into law.
Policymakers, who supported the rule change with a slim37-vote margin, decided to loosen this rule on Wednesday byallowing shale gas explorers to undertake fracking at least1,200 metres below the surface in national parks.
The vote, which was held without a parliamentary debate, didnot change a policy that bans fracking inside national parks.
Shale gas drillers will now be allowed to drill horizontallyinto desposits situated underneath national parks but shale gaswellheads must be located outside the protected zones.
Britain's opposition Labour Party said the government wasrushing through shale gas policy and expressed concerns over thelack of parliamentary discussion on the issue.
"Rather than addressing public concerns over frackingministers are using a parliamentary backdoor to put throughthese weak regulations without a proper debate," said LisaNandy, Labour's shadow energy and climate secretary. (Reporting by Karolin Schaps and William James; Editing by GregMahlich)