It’s 1859--Let’s Get Fracking!      The recent rush for underground energy called “fracking” and its attendant environmental consequences has happened before.      Demand for cheaper lighting, not the automobile, drove the first oil boom.       In 1859 when the first successful oil well started producing near Titusville, Pennsylvania, speculators rushed in to buy drilling rights on farms throughout the area. Small farmers were offered more money than they ever expected to see in their lifetime.     Many of the farmers found their land damaged or ruined by oil wells which spewed salt water and oil spills into surrounding streams and rivers.   Farmers downstream from the area suffered the effects too without ever receiving any money.      You might wonder why would petroleum be valuable in era before the automobile? Petroleum had little to no commercial value until a serial entrepreneur and invent...