Activists link arms to resist police officers who were trying clear the road outside the main entrance to the Cuadrilla exploratory drilling site in Balcombe, southeast England , as anti fracking demonstrations continue. Monday Aug. 19, 2013. The action comes on the first of two days of “mass civil disobedience” which campaigners have pledged to carry out to highlight their stance against the extraction of shale gas by fracking. (AP Photo/Gareth Fuller/PA) UNITED KINGDOM OUT
LONDON (AP) — A British lawmaker is among several people arrested at a protest against shale gas extraction in southern England.
Press photos showed Caroline Lucas, Britain’s only Green Party member of Parliament, being led away by police from a sit-in at the gates of a drilling site near the village of Balcombe on Monday.
The Cuadrilla Resources Ltd. site 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.
Protesters on Monday also blockaded Cuadrilla’s central England headquarters and the London offices of a PR firm it employs.
The government says tapping shale gas could transform Britain’s energy supply, but critics say it risks despoiling the countryside.
