For the push to impose federal regulation of hydraulic fracturing, three possible motivations exist: The practice exposes subsurface sources of drinking water to risk and therefore should be regulated. An exemption from federal regulation of hydraulic fracing became law during the administration of former President George W. Bush and therefore must be presumed environmentally deficient. Hydraulic fracing is essential to unconventional gas resources and therefore should be resisted for its power to extend domestic supplies—and therefore use—of hydrocarbon energy.Even as it fights political assaults on many other fronts, the US oil and gas producers must fight the developing sie...