They have been accused of being selfish and unpatriotic for opposing fracking despite living in large houses and consuming lots of energy.
Now residents of the village at the centre of the fracking debate are trying to overcome the impression that they are Nimbys by making their community of 760 homes self-sufficient in electricity. They plan to place thousands of solar panels on roofs around the village, including the local primary school and village hall.
Thousands of people, most of them outsiders, took part in protests in Balcombe in Sussex last summer as Cuadrilla, the company trying to kickstart a fracking revolution in Britain, sought to drill an exploratory well.
The episode caused divisions within the village itself, where a significant minority is in favour