http://www.theguardian.com/business/201 ... c-tory-mps

I'd be all for it if we could get guarantees from the buggers on potential compensation etc, but that's not bloody likely.

I am not concerned about the risks of earthquakes. I have lived in areas which have had bigger quakes than the one reportedly down to fracking in Blackpool and I never notice them. The real risk is from what they put down the wells to break the rock and if that gets into the water table that will end that resource for many years. If they did not use anything which was carcinogenic or toxic it would be another matter. Also it should be in areas controlled by the government so if there is no risk their constituents can gain from the extraction.

PM's £1m fracking claim was slip of tongue

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23617553

Christ, soon it'll be, 'I fracked recently. I think it was in Leeds. I think I might have gone for the full pressure blast...'

We all make mistakes like that. Hardly a sackable offence, even if he is Prime Minister. Though I wouldn't mind a big discount on gas or electricity if I was in a fracking area.

The reservoirs are way way below the water table and would be isolated by casing stings.
It's just ecohippy scaremongering.
They've been freaking in the USA for years and I'm not aware of a single issue with the water table being polluted.

It is more the use of aquifers. Reservoirs as you say are lined and so far less of a risk.

I meant oil/gas reservoirs

So did they ever get to the bottom of why some people in fracking areas can set fire to their tap water?

Methane migration happens naturally, but badly constructed drilling operations can speed it up.

What happens is they drill through lots of wet rock (the water table), then lots of dry rock, then they reach the shale deposit they are interested in. But that dry rock can contain trapped gasses of its own. Sometimes if the well bore isn't properly cemented, they can leak up the outside of that until they hit the wet rock and dissolve. They aren't the gasses or chemicals from the shale itself - those go inside the pipe.

US geologists have a test now for whether a bore is allowing that sort of leak (they listen for the hissing noise). So I guess if it happens one option is to just dig an old fashioned water well next to the frackers and let the laws of nature that cover solutions of gasses in pressurised liquids deal with that issue for them.