"I seen ten bald eagles in my time, an' I kilt nine of 'em." -Joad Cressbeckler reading from his autobiography.
With fracking, all that oil will be recovered. Resultant earthquakes and groundwater pollution are just added bonuses.
There's areas in the central States that never used to get earthquakes, but after extensive fracking operations, they are. Oklahoma Earthquakes Possibly Caused by Fracking Wastewater Wells | New Republic
I'd take the risk of one big one every 500-1,000 years over incessant M3-5 quakes constantly rattling my home and its contents. However, your premise that fracking-induced earthquakes reduce incidences of "big ones" in OK is incorrect. The largest historic OK earthquake on record was M5.0 (1882, 1952). Since fracking began, the largest quake has been 5.6, with swarms of M3-4.8s common in the past ten years. You are entitled to your opinion (I'm guessing as a Canadian you are rather defensive about tar sands and extraction methods there), but not your own facts. And with this, can we please move on to Prius topics?