Britain’s High Court ruled on Tuesday that a local government’s shale gas fracking permit award to developer Third Energy was legal, claimants Friends of the Earth said in a statement. “The High Court has ruled that fracking can go ahead in beautiful Yorkshire,” said Donna Hume, campaigner for Friends of the Earth, an environmental group that had challenged the permit awarded in May. North Yorkshire County Council was the first local authority to grant a shale gas fracking permit since a moratorium was lifted in 2012. Other British shale gas developers include IGas, Egdon Resources and INEOS. (Reporting by Karolin Schaps, editing by Louise Heavens)