Green Party MP arrested at protest against shale gas extraction

A British lawmaker was among more than two dozen people arrested on Monday at a protest against shale-gas extraction in southern England.

Caroline Lucas, Britain's only Green Party member of parliament, was led away by police from a sit-in at the gates of a drilling site near the village of Balcombe, in the county of West Sussex, and put in a police van.

Sussex Police said about 25 protesters were arrested for offences including assault and "obstruction of the highway".
Lucas was reported as saying she and the other demonstrators "took peaceful non-violent direct action only after exhausting every other means of protest available".

She said she was trying to stop a process that "could cause enormous damage for decades to come".

"The evidence is clear that fracking undermines efforts to tackle the climate crisis and poses potential risks to the local environment," she said.

The Cuadrilla Resources Limited site, 30 miles (50 kilometres) south of London, has been targeted by demonstrators opposing the process known as fracking.

The company says its operation at Balcombe involves exploratory drilling for oil and won't include fracking, though it hasn't ruled it out in future.
Cuadrilla suspended work at the site on Friday as protesters gathered for a six-day protest camp.

The government says tapping shale gas could transform Britain's energy supply, but critics say it risks despoiling the countryside.

Other protesters blockaded Cuadrilla's central England headquarters on Monday, in the city of Lichfield, Staffordshire.

Meanwhile, another group glued themselves to the door of the London public-relations firm that the company employs.
Cuadrilla condemned the protests, saying in a statement that its operations are "legal, approved and safe".

"Shale gas is essential to improve our energy security, heat our homes and create jobs and growth," the statement added.


AP