ABC’s Nightline last night featured an extensive piece on concerns about the environmental impact of fracking for natural gas in Arkansas, particularly the question of whether the activity relates to earthquake swarms.

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I think if you’ll watch you’ll find real live Arkansans, from the Fayetteville shale zone, who don’t seem likely to join the frackers’ cheerleaders in the Legislative Shale Caucus, a wholly owned subsidiary of the gas lobby.

UPDATE: Rogue millionaire Sheffield Nelson continues his assault on the gas industry today with a letter to the Oil and Gas Commission calling for “suspension of all hydraulic fracturing of wells being drilled in close proximity of any and all Arkansas lakes, rivers and streams.” I won’t hold my breath, but Nelson’s advocacy is an important counterpoint to the sycophancy of the Shale Caucus. Arkansas should allow gas exploration, it should enjoy the jobs created by that work. But it doesn’t have to roll over and take an environmental and financial screwing in the process.

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