Yesterday marked a loss for the fracking industry: Parliament voted to ban fracking in our national parks and tighten up environmental protections on fracking. Unfortunately, we lost too: The government still got its corporate-sponsored fracking bill onto the statute books -- allowing the fracking industry to drill right under our homes without our permission. And it has another plan up its sleeve: It wants to spend £80 million of taxpayer money to boost the fracking industry's terrible reputation.

No fracking way! The Business Department will soon make the final decision about this plan, so we need to take action now.

Tell the Business Department that you don't want to fund the fracking industry with taxpayers' money.

The Business Department plans to fund the drilling of hundreds of boreholes all over the country. It's trying to persuade us that fracking is safe -- which it isn't. Affected communities around the world have shown us that fracking pollutes the groundwater and air, is dangerous for our health, and emits large amounts of greenhouse gas.

Instead of listening to its own parliamentary report, our desperate government is plotting to spend millions of pounds of our own money on duping us -- but it's not too late to squash this plan.

David Cameron has boasted that his government is going 'all out for shale' -- regardless of the fact that less than a quarter of the UK public thinks fracking is a good idea. And opposition to fracking has exploded all around the world: Protest camps, mass demonstrations and multiple rejections of local fracking applications have sprung up everywhere.

Fracking will not lead to more affordable energy, nor will it tackle global warming -- whereas investing in renewable energy will. We cannot frack the British countryside and hit our climate change targets. With yesterday’s vote the government love-in with the shale industry has taken a hit -- let’s keep on fighting it.

Sign the petition against Business Department's plans to spend £80m of taxpayers' money to boost fracking.

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More information:

Tories forced into U-turn on fast-track fracking after accepting Labour plans, The Guardian, January 26 2015

Taxpayers to fund hundreds of fracking boreholes across the country, Observer, November 22 2014

Support for fracking has declined to 24 per cent, energy department finds, Telegraph, August 12 2014