Sure, we can get up and leave after we've fouled the place up beyond all repair. It's just the people who live there and can't afford to move who can't leave. Tough. They signed a release, didn't they, or they were stupid enough to buy property without securing the mineral rights.

This whole fracking controversy has a simple solution. It is neither definitely destructive to the environment, nor is it always perfectly safe. It can probably be either, or somewhere in between, depending on the details of the fracking process, land use in the affected area, and the local geology.

We need to license frackers by making them pay for a detailed preliminary study of the area to allow starting, and a detailed follow up after they are finished--by an independent scientific agency or contractor with teeth, not an industry shill or government pal of the industry. That same agency will provide the evidence in the event of litigation. The frackers pay because they are the ones who benefit if they are successful. I would think Conservatives would support this solution, after all, it is private property, homes, farms and businesses, that is being threatened by this activity.

Are there potential problems with this approach? Absolutely. We see them all the time. We are adding an extra layer of complexity, a bureaucracy, and things will go wrong, and people may be treated unfairly, on either or both sides. That's what happens when you live in a crowded and complex society of competing interests and great disparity in economic and political power. And yes, it will add to the cost of the resource recovery, even if no environmental damage whatsoever results from the fracking process.

Regulation is not full-proof, it is often inefficient or even misguided and yes, it sometimes gets co-opted by either business or government, or even a conspiracy of the two. But there is no way the free market by itself, will protect the environment. Only lawsuits, fines and jail time can do that.

What are the alternatives? To let the drillers decide whether it is clean or not is lunacy. You know what they are going to say. They are going to lie like a mad fracker rather than pay a penny more than they have to. The frackers don't own the surface, they have no financial incentive to be stewards of it.

Sorry to bring up the "R" word. But if they don't like it, they can go frack themselves.