Did people ever learn from past experiences with industrialization? The outcome was a monopoly over the whole business creating environmental damage and lower life quality for local residents. Pesticides lead to epidemic of insect resistance and human disease. The relentless reliance on oil is fueling wars and pollution. Fracking is only a temporary band-aid solution to a much larger problem. Yes, people are out of work and getting desperate. But they became jobless in the first place due to corporate dominance dependent on a single thing: money. A monoculture field is ever vulnerable due to relying on a single crop, same with human livelihoods.
If one realizes that many of the states where fracking is either being done or planned- North Dakota- also are great wind farm areas it seems almost wrong to drill at all. Hell, the US is too far behind other countries already when it comes to renewable energy.
Really it would be far less insulting to turn North Dakota over to buffalo instead of environmentally destructive fracking. It would also create an enduring legacy that permits continued quality of life for people and nature.