Telegraph: What is fracking?
The term is shorthand for "hydraulic fracturing', a method of extracting oil and gas from the ground.
The process involves drilling a well then pumping water, sand and chemicals down it at high pressure. This fractures the rock, helping to extract the oil and gas within it. Fracking for oil and gas trapped in "shale' rocks is a new process in Britain.
But another, less intensive form of fracking -- involving fewer chemicals -- has been going on for decades to help extract...