Despite being an ardent environmentalist, I favor shale gas fracking for many reasons.
- Abundant shale gas reserves makes coal as a power plant fuel very uneconomical and thus a good "bridge" fuel to meet power demands during the time necessary for alternative energy solutions continue to improve and are implemented
- Natural gas produces 50% more energy per equivalent of CO2 released into the atmosphere than coal
- Natural gas does not have environmental issues with mercury and sulfur in the stack gas and heavy metals in slag as does coal.  Even if mercury is removed from gas emissions via scrubbing, mercury along with cadmium, lead, etc. in the residual coal slag is a long term environmental problem as evidenced by breaks in impoundment ponds
- Deaths associated with coal extraction exceed deaths associated with shale gas extraction
- The shale gas water issues are gradually being mitigated with continuously improving technology and field experience.