It seems the discussion of the subject has broken into two extremes. First, unless the Feds come up with much greater regulations and restrictions then the state of Texas imposes there should be very little if any impact on the number of wells drilled. Companies already face huge liabilities from civil suits should they damage the surface environment or nearby wells...either local water wells or oil/NG wells. I can assure you many landowners and their lawyers will monitor such efforts closely hoping for a problem so they can collect that big settlement check. I’ve sat in a lawn chair under a tree more then once being paid by a landowner to monitor operations in just such a hope.

Texas imposes strict (and certifiable) limits on the pressures utilized. The frac fluids cannot be pushed to the surface THROUGH THE EARTH. But there is always the possibility the fluids could rupture the casing and leak to the fresh ground water or even the surface. This has happened in the past and is the source for some of the "horror stories". But as Gail points out, matters should be kept in perspective. Ever year the state of NY dumps millions of pound of salt into their water shed. Nice way to keep the roads ice free but puts many, many times more nasty stuff onto the ground the all the frac fluids that would ever be used in NY let alone what might leak. Airplanes crash, bridges fall down, etc, etc and no one calls for doing away with them.

I doubt you’ll see much more then a few public PR efforts by the operators arguing against any new rules which they may claim could decrease drilling activity. The big fight will come from the landowners who will want those $10's of million in lease bonuses and royalty. Their fits will have much more impact on the politicians then anything the operators could say. And you can probably count of the state/local politicians fighting the Feds on any efforts which would decrease their tax income. Makes for flashy headlines but I doubt much will come out of it.