I don't understand people who lease their land for fracking natural gas production

It seems to me that many people do not understand that what makes their land worth something is a supply of water. By taking even $100,000 in exchange for fracking rights, I think they will wind up with a groundwater supply contaminated with heavy metals and volatiles for millennia, which in many cases will render their land worthless.

http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/613/

I think this will turn out to be The Last Delusion, the last time the US does enormous damage to itself instead of just ramping up energy efficiency and investing in alternatives. I already reduced the energy use of my house to 90% less than the energy use of the average US house with no change in living standard, so it can be done easily and for no cost in the long run if you plan what to do properly. I say this not to brag, but because people don't believe me. It can be done. It just takes a little planning. I could reduce this to zero with a $10,000 photovoltaic system, but I will wait as the price is continuing to collapse. If you think this is not possible, you will not spend the time learning how to make it possible, and then of course it will actually be impossible.

The fracking companies say there is no problem with groundwater contamination. And of course that is possible. But as we have seen, cutting corners and mistakes can lead to disaster in very short order. One way to confuse an issue is to discuss everything from a perfectly executed example that has nothing to do with actual execution in reality. During the Vietnam War, Agent Orange was sprayed over huge areas. The representatives of the manufacturers sat before Congress and said things like "Agent Orange does not cause cancer. Here is experimental proof." And what they were saying was technically true, but was a lie of distraction. What was sprayed on the jungles was not the extremely pure Agent Orange they were showing, but industrially produced Agent Orange which is far from pure and had many side products (unintended and undesirable molecules of different structure) that are impossible to completely remove at a reasonable cost. The Space Shuttle was supposed to be very safe and be lost in no more than 1 in 1,000 missions, but as we saw, the loss is more like 1 in 50.

Investing in energy efficiency is cheaper and safer and makes you way more than $100,000 in the long run.

I cannot believe that PBS Now and Bill Moyer's Journal have been cancelled. They have done us a wonderful service.