Cuadrilla is looking for approval to frack the first horizontal well into shale rock in Britain – in Lancashire, to be precise – and it’s holding up Pennsylvania as an example of how it can be done without damaging a bucolic countryside.

“Pennsylvania has the Marcellus Shale, which is one of the largest shale plays in the US. It supplies New York with most of its gas and is a rural landscape just like here. There’s been no impact on tourism, no impact on farming and the economy is booming.” – Cuadrillia Chief Executive Francis Egan, in an interview conducted in Lancashire and quoted in the Financial Times

The Financial Times says a “crucial” planning decision is due next week on Caudrilla’s bid to frack in the area. A go-head there, and subsequent endorsement “by the Lancashire county council the following week, could lead to a wave of applications from shale explorers who believe there are trillions of cubic feet of gas locked in rock formations thousands of feet below northern England.”

The FT report suggests there is some limited support for fracking from businesses that think it will bring an economic boost to the area, but a lot of highly visible local opposition. In one village, for example, “almost all the houses … display ‘Frack Free Lancashire’ signs. Other posters warn of land contamination and noxious gases from flaring.”