Joe Mosby of Stephens Media provides a checklist of all the ways that the Game and Fish Commission will have some oversight over the coming gas drilling on its wildlife refuges. The list itself amounts to a lengthy catalogue of all the things that can go wrong. I’m not saying they will. But I’m saying all of the assurances of review and oversight tell you plenty about the risk. I’d invite you to SW La., my home, someday to take a look at all the places that reputable energy companies poisoned land, water, air and wildlife despite similar bills of assurance.

The state simply needs a much bigger and brawnier environmental enforcement agency — one willing to crack down on polluters would be nice, too — with thousands of such holes and billions of gallons of waste fluid in the offing.

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