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Newly installed Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg leaves Downing Street, London, after meeting new Prime Minister Liz Truss, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022.

LONDON (AP) — The U.K. government confirmed Thursday that it's lifting a ban on fracking in England, arguing that the move will help boost the country's energy security amid Russia's war in Ukraine.

Prime Minister Liz Truss announced within days of taking office earlier this month that she would reverse a 2019 ban on hydraulic fracturing, a controversial technique used to extract oil and gas from shale rock.

Britain needs to “explore all avenues available to us through solar, wind, oil and gas production -– so it’s right that we’ve lifted the pause to realize any potential sources of domestic gas,” business and energy secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg said Thursday.

Truss said she “will not be going ahead with anything that carries a risk," but stressed that "energy security is vital.”

Officials also backed an expansion of licenses for oil and gas operations in the North Sea, drawing anger from environmental groups Thursday.

The Conservative government suspended fracking in November 2019 after a series of tremors were recorded at the U.K.'s only shale wells near Blackpool in northwest England.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said lifting the ban means future applications will be considered “where there is local support." Developers will need to have the necessary licences and permissions before they can commence operations.

Fracking involves injecting high-pressure water deep underground to extract oil or gas from rock. Environmental groups have long opposed the practice, saying it can pollute groundwater and contributes to climate change. Critics also say it's an ineffective way to generate energy, doesn't help lower steeply rising energy bills, and is opposed by communities wherever it is attempted.

Rees-Mogg faced an angry backlash from lawmakers, including some from his own Conservative Party. Opposition parties accused the Conservative government of breaking its own manifesto pledge in 2019, when the party promised it wouldn’t lift the ban on fracking unless the practice was scientifically proven to be safe amid concerns over earthquakes.

"Even when the government went ‘all out for shale’, the frackers produced no energy for the U.K. but managed to create two holes in a muddy field, traffic, noise and a colossal amount of controversy,” Greenpeace energy security campaigner Philip Evans said.

A government-commissioned review on the risks of shale gas extraction by the British Geological Survey was inconclusive, saying more data was needed. Officials argued that the “limited current understanding of U.K. geology and onshore shale resources” shouldn't be a barrier to fracking.

“It is clear that we need more sites drilled in order to gather better data and improve the evidence base," a statement from the government's business department said. “Lifting the pause on shale gas extraction will enable drilling to gather this further data, building an understanding of U.K. shale gas resources and how we can safely carry out shale gas extraction in the U.K. where there is local support.”

The other parts of the U.K. — Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales — aren't affected by Thursday's announcement.

Meanwhile, the government's approval for more oil and gas operations in the North Sea means that more than 100 new licenses are expected to be granted from next month.

Friends of the Earth Scotland said that the new round of licensing suggests that Britain's government "is effectively denying the reality of the climate emergency.”

Follow AP’s climate coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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President Joe Biden spent a good portion of his day Wednesday showcasing his administration’s efforts to promote electric vehicles at the Detroit auto show. Biden is a self-proclaimed “car guy” who owns a 1967 Corvette Stingray. He got behind the wheel of a snazzy new Corvette at the show amid jokes that he might drive it back to Washington. But he journeyed to the auto show mostly to highlight the new climate, tax and health care law that offers tax incentives for buying electric vehicles. He announced approval of the first $900 million in infrastructure money to build EV chargers across 53,000 miles of the national highway system and 35 states.

The separatist leaders of four Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine say they are planning to hold referendums this week for the territories to become part of Russia as Moscow loses ground in the war it launched. The votes will be held in the Luhansk, Kherson and partly Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions. The announcement of the balloting starting Friday came after a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that they were needed. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also said that folding Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine into Russia itself would make their redrawn frontiers “irreversible” and enable Moscow to use “any means” to defend them.

Natural gas supplier Uniper says it’s in “final discussions” for Germany to nationalize the company. The move announced Tuesday ramps up the German government’s intervention in the gas and oil industry as Russia’s war in Ukraine provokes an energy crisis. Uniper says the expansion of its July rescue deal would feature a capital increase of 8 billion euros that the government would finance and involve Germany taking a majority stake now held by Finland-based Fortum. The Uniper rescue is one of several measures taken by the government to try to ensure sufficient energy supplies this winter as Russia has cut back natural gas supplies to Europe.

The European Union’s executive branch has recommended that the bloc suspend around 7.5 billion euros ($7.5 billion) in funding to Hungary over concerns about democratic backsliding and the possible mismanagement of EU money. EU Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn said Sunday that despite measures Hungary has proposed to address the deficiencies, the European Commission is recommending the suspension of funds “amounting to an estimated amount of 7.5 billion euros.” Hahn said that Hungary has until Nov. 19 to address the concerns. The European Commission has for nearly a decade accused Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban of dismantling democratic institutions. He denies the accusations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a partial mobilization of reservists in Russia. It's an unpopular step that sparked rare protests across the country and led to almost 1,200 arrests. Putin's order follows humiliating setbacks for his troops nearly seven months after invading Ukraine. It’s the first mobilization in Russia since World War II. Western backers of Ukraine derided the move as an act of weakness. The Russian leader warned the West he isn’t bluffing about using everything at his disposal to protect Russian territory. This appeared to be a veiled reference to his nuclear arsenal.

Sen. Joe Manchin on Tuesday railed against what he called “revenge politics″ being used against him, as liberals in the House and Senate team up with Republicans to oppose his plan to speed permits for natural gas pipelines and other energy projects. Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, secured a commitment from President Joe Biden and Democratic leaders to include the permitting package in a stopgap government-funding bill in return for his support of a landmark law to curb climate change. But in recent weeks Democrats and environmental groups have lined up to oppose the permitting plan, calling it bad for the country and the climate.

U.S. President Joe Biden paid his respects at Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin as thousands of police, hundreds of British troops and an army of officials made final preparations for the queen’s state funeral. The funeral on Monday at Westminster Abbey will be a spectacular display of national mourning that will also be the biggest gathering of world leaders for years. People across Britain paused for a minute of silence at 8 p.m. to honor the queen. Also late Sunday, authorities closed a miles-long queue for people to see the queen lying in state. New arrivals were turned away, so that everyone in the line can file past the coffin before Monday morning, when it will be taken to Westminster Abbey for the queen’s funeral.

The operator of one of Germany’s three remaining nuclear power stations says it has detected a leak that will require the plant to shut down for maintenance if it's to run beyond the end of the year. The announcement on Monday puts pressure on the German government to decide if it wants to stick to its plan of shutting all the country’s nuclear plants this year, to keep them on stand-by or to run them for as long as possible. Germany’s economy minister said earlier this month that he favors shutting one down and keeping two on stand-by. Opposition lawmakers and some in government want them to keep running, to help ease possible energy shortages.

A federal appeals court is allowing the Justice Department to resume its use of classified records seized from Donald Trump’s Florida estate in its ongoing criminal investigation. The ruling Wednesday clears the way for investigators to continue scrutinizing the documents as they evaluate whether to bring criminal charges over the storage of top-secret government records at Mar-a-Lago. The appeals court note that Trump presented no evidence that he had declassified the records. Trump claimed in a Fox News Interview Wednesday that “If you’re the president of the United States, you can declassify" material just by saying “It’s declassified” and "even by thinking about it."

Investigators searching through a mass burial site in Ukraine have found evidence that some of the dead were tortured, including bodies with broken limbs and ropes around their necks. That's according to Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy, who spoke Friday. The site near Izium was recently recaptured from Russian forces. It appears to be one of the largest of its kind discovered in Ukraine. Zelenskyy rushed out a video statement just hours after the exhumations began, apparently to underscore the gravity of the discovery.

Newly installed Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg leaves Downing Street, London, after meeting new Prime Minister Liz Truss, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022.

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