Who Will Pay for The Fracking Quake Big One?

So before a new drug is approved for use it goes through years of meticulous scrutiny to, among other things, verify that there are no harmful side effects to a patient, or at least that the risks are within an acceptable range. That's why we hear those long, frightening lists of potential side effects on television commercials, which include even the rarest of possible outcomes. Similarly, we have a system of laws and regulations under The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Clean Air Act, and the Clean Water Act that should scrutinize the effects of major projects on the environment, which include effects on the "human environment". How is it then that fracking seems overnight to have become so ubiquitous in our nation? How much consideration was given to environmental effects of fracking in the short time between when fracking shale formations became economically feasible in the late 90's until drilling of the one million plus wells that we now have in the US? Instead of giving the impacts of hydraulic fracturing the same amount of study as new medications, it seems the industry managed to get us hooked on the false panacea of fracking, of cheap gas, and then let us discover little by little the scary side effects as they become too obvious to conceal. New research suggests that all the small earthquakes that have been linked to underground disposal of fracking wastewater are significantly increasing the risks of major quakes in nearby faults:

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/tiny-quakes-linked-fracking-raise-risks-geophysicist-says-n306661

If we don't hold them responsible now, then when scientists link the first big quake that levels large cities to fracking, will the gas drilling company representatives point their fingers back at us and say "you permitted this, you profited from the cheap gas, you should pay for it."

http://www.npr.org/2015/02/16/386693615/with-quakes-spiking-oil-industry-is-under-the-microscope-in-oklahoma?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20150216


http://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/fracking-tie-earthquakes-raises-question-liability-n104871

http://www.fractracker.org/2014/03/1-million-wells/

http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/02/11/not-hundreds-thousands-oil-industry-injection-wells-dumping-wastewater-protected-california-aquifers

http://www.latimes.com/visuals/graphics/la-me-quake-frack-20150423-htmlstory.html