Oil & Gas had their advocates at town hall meeting as well

Same as it's ever been. It's all about the MONEY !

One of the most contentious moments of last night's fracking town hall meeting was offered by former LNB head Gary Jacobs. He mentioned that the Safe Fracking Coalition should not be spreading so much mis-information about the Oil and Gas industry and their fracking ways. 

Mr. Jacobs said something to the effect of "it is physically and geologically impossible for chemicals injected at 6,000 feet to contaminate the water table which lies 2,000 feet underground. Notably, an audience member responded to Jacob's "misinformation" accusation by interjecting "How do I know you're not trying to fool ME right now?".

Perhaps Mr. Jacobs should  avoid speaking in absolutes. Maybe he hasn't heard the old saying "everything's possible". Furthermore, he might do well do recall that sadly, people also used to say that it was impossible to sink the Titanic, and everyone knows how that turned out. 

The best approach is to slow down this stampede, collect as many facts and data as possible, do an objective evaluation by non-partisan (in reality bi-partisan) parties and make this information available to citizens, landowners, environmentalists, industry proponents, et al.;  it's like someone said " this shale's been around millions of years, it's not going anywhere so what's the big rush"?

I know, I know, those pushing the fear factor will say depency on foreign oil, and national interests. Well, if the fracking industry is allowed to continue doing as it pleases, we might end up with something a lot more dire : depency on foreign water!