Fracking discussed at Stanford conference

A recent conference at Stanford University sponsored by the Brookings Institution discussed America's energy future, including the controversial practice known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking". Fracking is the process of causing fractures in rocks beneath the Earth so that natural gas trapped in those rocks has more channels to escape to the surface, where it can be captured by gas wells. Since gas is one of the cheapest and cleanest burning fuels, there's huge demand for it, and the increasingly widespread use of fracking has increased the supply, brought down the price, and made our "energy crisis" seem to recede into the distance. But fracking has risks. Sometimes the released gas doesn't go where you want it to, but seeps out into other areas, such as underground water supplies. Also, it seems intuitively obvious that when you fracture large rocks under the Earth, you're tampering with the planet's structural integrity and making the ground less stable, inviting catastrophic and irreversible damage. Also, every time a fracking procedure goes well, it just adds more incentive to keep doing it. The question is, are the environmental consequences of fracking being considered carefully enough, of is the prospect of huge energy supplies at great prices making us blind to the potential dangers?