ALLEGAN, MI  (WKZO) --  They nearly filled Griswold Auditorium with fracking opponents last night as groups that oppose the practice are getting a second petition drive organized to ban it in Michigan and putting together a suit challenging the DNR for allegedly permitting firms to drill on State Land.   They call themselves “fractivists”.

It comes just as the International Energy Agency has released a report projecting that North America could be the top energy producer in the world by 2017 and self-sufficient by 2035 if it begins fracking a lot.

Oil analyst John Kilduff says it’s a balancing act. Some states already ban fracking.  It may be the environmental fight of this century; cheaper energy but at what cost to our water supply and how much regulation do you apply to try to protect one from the other.