Experts caution over shale gas’ impact on air quality

A warning that shale gas development could have a potentially adverse impact on air quality has emerged more three years after it was handed to the government.

The advisory Air Quality Expert Group, composed of senior and experienced academics, officials and consultants, produced the report in early 2015 but it only emerged on Friday. It was four days after the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy issued its first ever hydraulic fracturing consent for Cuadrilla’s Preston New Road site near Blackpool.