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The Scottish government on Tuesday announced an “effective ban” on hydraulic fracturing or fracking, following an overwhelming public outcry against the oil extraction practice due to environmental concerns, RT reported.

Hydraulic fracturing is the process used to extract natural gas from the Montney [unconventional rock, which has pathways that are much narrower than pathways in conventional rock containing natural gas] formation.

Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse told MSPs that the practice "cannot and will not take place in Scotland". He explained allowing fracking would undermine the government’s ambitions to deeply cut Scotland’s climate emissions and would lead to unjustifiable environmental damage.

Mr Wheelhouse said the consultation came back with "overwhelming" opposition to fracking, with 99% of the 60,000 respondents supporting a ban. He said this showed that "there is no social licence for unconventional oil and gas to be taken forward at this time", the BBC reported.

The result showed “there is no social license for unconventional oil and gas to be taken forward at this time.”

Mr Wheelhouse said an existing moratorium on the technique, which has been in place since 2015, would continue "indefinitely" after a consultation showed "overwhelming" opposition. The decision was made amid intense pressure from industry and some SNP ministers to approve exploration.

The Scottish government has previously imposed a similar block on underground coal gasification used to extract gas from coal seams deep underground.

The move was welcomed by environmental groups calling for the United States and the rest of the United Kingdom to follow.

“This is a victory for the environment and for local communities fighting fracking,” said Mary Church, the head of campaigns at Friends of the Earth Scotland.

She added, “this is a huge win for the anti-fracking movement, particularly for those on the frontline of this dirty industry here in Scotland, who have been working for a ban these last six years.”

The privately-owned oil and gas firm Ineos which owns the huge Grangemouth petrochemical plant called the ban a disastrous decision which would damage Scotland’s economy. Ineos holds fracking exploration licenses across 700 square miles of the country.

The move could see "large numbers of Scottish workers leaving the country to find work,” said Tom Pickering, operations director of Ineos Shale.

“The Scottish government has turned its back on a potential manufacturing and jobs renaissance and lessened Scottish academia's place in the world by ignoring its findings," he added.

Experts at auditing firm KPMG estimated allowing unconventional coal and gas extraction would likely to only increase Scotland’s GDP by about 0.1 percent but cause environmental ruin in areas where it took place.

Beyond dispute now is, what many have understood for years, that fracking creates earthquakes. Last year a magnitude 4.6 earthquake struck near Progress Energy work site in northern British Columbia in August 2015.

*(31st May 2017: Representatives of the Broad Alliance of Communities Against Unconventional Oil and Gas; Friends of the Earth Scotland; and 38 Degrees gather outside the Scottish Parliament to hand in tens of thousands of consultation responses calling on the Scottish Government to ban fracking. Image credit: Maverick photo agency/ flickr)