Green group praises British fracking abandonment

LONDON, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- A move by British energy company Cuadrilla Resources to back off plans for a hydraulic fracturing campaign doesn't eliminate the threat, an advocacy group said.

"Cuadrilla may have pulled the plug on one of its Lancashire sites, but the fracking threat has not gone away," Friends of Earth campaigner Helen Rimmer said in a statement Friday. "The firm still plans to drill shale gas wells at other sites across the county."

Cuadrilla Chief Executive Officer Francis Egan said his company would abandon its effort to work in parts in Lanchashire because of "technical constraints related to wintering birds," the BBC reported Thursday.

Cuadrilla was the target of summer protests over oil drilling in Balcombe, a small English village in West Sussex county. Advocacy groups said they worried the work was a prelude to hydraulic fracturing, a drilling practice viewed as a threat to the environment.

Egan said the company was continuing with a site selection process and would keep local communities updated on its process.