earthquakes a day. They made them stop and now...no earthquakes.

...And I spend a lot of time with people in the energy industry, though none who are engaged in fracking.

Fracking, Shale Oil, Oil Sands, and Deep Water Ocean extraction will be the death of this planet.

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Don't forget the sinkholes; those are related to fracking as well.

earthquakes (which suggests the question, what is the big whoop about a few 2.3 earthquakes that don't even break any dishes in the cupboard?)

I really think the 'science' that purports to condemn the technology is on par with the creationist claims that the Grand Canyon was formed 6000 years ago in the "great flood".

Do you want to blame the New Madrid quakes on it too? I accept the facts on global warming/climate change because there's scientific evidence for it. There is nothing but hysteria and crappy pseudoscience to bolster the claims of significant problems much less damage from subsurface fracturing.

Did you actually read the link in the OP? What research can you point to that says specifically what is "pseudoscience" in the work of the US Geological Survey? What specifically is flawed about their studies?

You've so far offered your opinion that we shouldn't care about small magnitude quakes and the incorrect claim that Illinois has had no quakes since the date you tell us they first used hydraulic fracturing in that state. That's not enough to overcome the presumption most fair-minded readers will have that invited papers at big scientific meetings are generally backed more by data than by "crappy pseudoscience."

Note that it's entirely possible (likely, even) that antifracking activists might exaggerate the implications of this research. But you are impugning the research itself here, and I see no warrant for that. The potential for some group to misuse a scientific research result is no indictment of the science itself.

nothing like what we are talking about today. Your low volume fracking of vertical wells does not present the same problems that the High Volume Slick Water Horizontal Hydraulic Fracking being used for unconventional gas development today present. Completely different issues, 5 million gallons of frack fluid per well vs 100's of thousands for example.

The earthquakes under discussion are being caused by toxic shit flowback wastewater injection wells NOT hydraulic fracking used for well development. Your comparison with creationism is just bullshit.

Cheers!

Let's try not to disappear the part where you made up the falsehood that zero earthquakes had occurred in Illinois since 1952. Why did you say zero? Was it lack of desire to do research?

There are lots of links on Google. Here is just one from today, actually:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/09/ohio-fracking-earthquakes-cause-determined_n_1334808.html

"COLUMBUS, Ohio — A dozen earthquakes in northeastern Ohio were almost certainly induced by injection of gas-drilling wastewater into the earth, state regulators said Friday as they announced a series of tough new rules for drillers." More at above link.