The Scottish Government has launched a consultation on the use of fracking in Scotland.
Members of the public have until the end of May to submit their views.
A final decision on the controversial gas extraction technique is expected to be made by ministers by the end of the year.
They have not set out a preferred position or policy in the consultation document, stating they are taking a "cautious, evidence-led approach".
A moratorium on unconventional oil and gas development in Scotland has been in place since January 2015.
It prevents hydraulic fracturing for shale oil and gas, and coal bed methane extraction, from taking place while the Government investigates evidence on its potential impact.
Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse said: "The Scottish Government has sought to present impartial, independent information on unconventional oil and gas in order to encourage informed dialogue and debate.
"This consultation does not set out or advocate a preferred Scottish Government position or policy. Instead, we want to create space for dialogue and allow different perspectives to come forward.
"Once the consultation closes and the responses have been independently analysed, we will then consider the full range of evidence, and make our recommendation.
"In doing so, we will give careful consideration to the extraction methods for both shale oil and gas, and coal bed methane.
"We will then ask members of the Scottish Parliament to vote on our recommendation, and we will come to a final decision by the end of 2017 on whether or not unconventional oil and gas has a role in Scotland's energy mix."
Environmental organisations have called for fracking to be banned.
Lang Banks, director of WWF Scotland, said: "Any decision to access more fossil fuel reserves by using fracking would fly in the face of the Scottish Government's much welcomed ambition of securing half of all of Scotland's energy needs from renewables by 2030.
"When given the choice, opinion polling tells us that the public always backs clean renewables over polluting fossil fuels. We are confident that by the end of this consultation the public will give fracking a resounding thumbs down."
Friends of the Earth Scotland head of campaigns Mary Church said: "No state has had a moratorium on fracking, looked at the evidence, and decided it's a good idea.
"Support for fracking is at an all-time low. People just don't want this dirty, dangerous industry.
"We will be encouraging people to respond in huge numbers and are confident that they will give a clear signal to the Scottish Government to ban fracking for good."
The consultation will run until May 31 and can be viewed on the Scottish Government's consultation website http://consult.scotland.gov.uk.
Scottish Labour environment spokeswoman Claudia Beamish, who has introduced her own Member's Bill to ban fracking in Scotland, said the Government is further prolonging making a decision on whether to impose a ban.
She said: "Voters going to the polls in May's important local elections still won't know the SNP's position on fracking.
"It's time for nationalist ministers to get off the fence and back Labour's call for a ban on fracking in Scotland."
Green MSP Mark Ruskell said: "The evidence to ban fracking already exists because we have more fossil fuels than we can burn if we want to limit climate change.
"A ban on fracking will allow us to focus on stable jobs in energy efficiency and renewables, and it's vital that communities take part in the consultation to make their feelings known because this could be the beginning of the end for fracking in Scotland."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel