An English county government on Monday approved an application for what could be the first permit to frack for shale gas in Western Europe since 2011. The North Yorkshire County Council voted 7-4 to allow U.K.-based Third Energy to use hydraulic fracturing to extract shale gas from an existing natural gas well in Kirby Misperton in northern England. “This approval is a huge responsibility. We will have to deliver on our commitment…to undertake this operation safely and without impacting on the local environment,” said Rasik Valand, chief executive of privately held Third Energy. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a process of using water, sand and chemicals to release oil and gas trapped in underground rock. The widespread use of the practice reinvigorated the U.S. onshore oil-and-gas industry over the last decade. The U.K., which the U.S. Energy Information Administration […]