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My family is in the coal mining business, but my company is in the natural gas business, so I have some exposure to the experts in the field.
Fracking is a new technology. As such, it will take a while for safety, regulation, and legislation to catch up with it, but they will, just like they did with oil back in the late 19th century. As it is now, however, yes, it's dangerous to the water table in the areas around it. As far as I'm concerned, we should be regulating and monitoring all of those drilling companies more than we are, but if it helps us get away from coal and more into natural gas, it would be worth it.
As for Niall Ferguson, I haven't read any of his books myself, but he doesn't have a great reputation among historians who have. This is second hand, of course, but I'm not sure I would automatically assume every position he takes is representative of the academic consensus.
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