Speak the frack up!

Just a quick note to remind you that public comment on regulations for natural gas drilling ends tomorrow.

Earth to Philly would never presume to tell you how to comment, of course. We will only point out this news brief from today's Daily News:

Rubber stamp for gas wells

Pennsylvania environmental regulators say they spend as little as 35 minutes reviewing each of the thousands of applications for natural-gas well permits they get each year from drillers intent on tapping the state's lucrative and vast Marcellus Shale reserves.

And the regulators say they do not give any additional scrutiny to requests to drill near high-quality streams and rivers, even though the waterways are protected by state and federal law.

Staffers at the state Department of Environmental Protection testified behind closed doors last month as part of a lawsuit filed by residents and environmental groups over a permit that DEP issued for an exploratory gas well in northeastern Pennsylvania, less than a half-mile from the Delaware River and about 300 feet from a pristine stream.

Sounds good to you? Let 'em know! Doesn't? Let 'em know!