Four fracking wells in northeastern Ohio have been shut down by the state, after an increase in seismic activity, which many believe has been caused by the fracking itself.

I’m saving my “What to Look for in 2012″ listicle for tomorrow, but one of the issues that may not make the list, but which is terribly important, is the battle in the states over hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. 2011 was the year when this issue finally bubbled up to the surface (pardon the pun) and into the consciousness of the public. The critically acclaimed Gasland came out in 2010, but anti-facking forces benefited this year from some scientific revelations. Independent studies for the first time identified fracking as a cause of methane contamination and water pollution, and late in the year, the EPA agreed in a case in Wyoming.

For the first time, government scientists concluded that hydraulic fracturing, the process of shooting massive quantities of water and chemicals into rock to release natural gas, contaminates drinking water. The study concerns an incident in Pavillion, Wyoming, and culminates three years of research of the local aquifer.

Tim Puko at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review uncovered a $56 million mistake in the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue’s reporting of personal income tax (PIT) collections attributed to Marcellus Shale drilling for last year.

Back in May, the Department estimated that taxable Marcellus Shale royalties generated $102.7 million in PIT collections in 2010. Now the Department says that figure is a tad lower — $46.2 million, a decrease of $56.5 million or over 55% from what was reported six months ago. To quote Britney Spears, “Oops!”

This is a victory for environmentalists who wanted to stop the fracking regulations from taking effect. The commission wanted unanimous support and Delaware’s announcement guaranteed a close vote. If New York and Delaware continue to hold out this will be postponed indefinitely.

From Maine to Monterey, Utah to Utica — big energy corporations like Halliburton are bribing your local officials for the right to pump “proprietary chemicals” into open fractures beneath the earth that flow into local water formations. We want to know who they are, and we need your help in finding out.

A relatively new natural gas drilling technique – hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” – is being rushed into wide scale use with the same heedless abandon as deep water oil drilling. Activists are trying to put the brakes on it before fracking has the chance to produce its own version of last year’s BP oil spill.

MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan hosts a live town hall from Oklahoma State University tonight at 8pm EDT. Panelists include: Boone Pickens, Oil Tycoon & Founder, BP Capital Management, Ashwin Madia, VoteVets.org, Bob Deans, Director of Federal Communications, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Former CIA Director James Woolsey.

It’s worth noting that there are enough “emergency” pieces of legislation to tide over a session that could be as small as three weeks (one week before Thanksgiving, and perhaps only two weeks after). Congress needs to pass a continuing resolution to keep the government running. There are several pieces of legislation that expire on November 30, like extended unemployment benefits and the “doctor’s fix” for Medicare reimbursement rates. And then there are the Bush tax cuts, which expire at the end of the year. Clearly that doesn’t leave much room for energy, child nutrition, DADT, the DREAM Act, labor bills, a Chinese currency measure, the new START treaty or even the deficit commission recommendations, parts or all of which had been promised a vote in the lame duck.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid added to his energy/oil spill response bill a measure from Chuck Schumer and Bob Casey that would force companies engaged in hydraulic fracturing (or fracking) to disclose the chemicals used to extract natural gas from rocks. This mere act of disclosure has put Republicans up in arms.