Fracking: a technical word or just cursing?

Five years ago when the TV series "Battlestar Galactica" was popular people used to imitate the show by using the word "frak" or "frack" as a curse word. Today many people opposed to extractive industries continue to see "fracking," now a common shorthand for the technology of hydraulic fracturing, as something of an expletive. In Joe Nocera's NYT column today, he calls out the people who can't get past fracking as an obscenity to see it for the good it provides. He notes that the process is not totally environmentally benign, but that increases in the state of the art are minimizing the impact, and the state of Colorado is putting into place numerous safeguards to try to get the benefits with as few costs as possible. On the other hand, some groups won't hear anything good about it and just find the whole process objectionable. 

I think it's a little too easy to vilify your opponents, and that's happening on both sides here. Joe is angry at the knee-jerk opposition, and they are angry at fracking. It's the same, "I'm not talking to you!" attitude that shut down the government. Disappointing!