The debate around the business of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking—a method of drilling that extracts natural gas from shale—is producing some of the best hype since global warming.

Nothing gets the hackles up quicker than a good old back-and-forth over an environmental issue. And fracking's got all the necessary ingredients to ignite the debate: chemicals, emissions, drilling, drinking water, big companies, angry environmentalists, wild allegations and the juicy irony of people you would expect to be in favor of clean energy demanding that companies stop drilling for natural gas in the United States.

Interestingly, the two sides have largely squared off according to geography. In parts of the northern U.S., where energy exploration is not as big a pursuit as in some of the oil-producing states down south, disagreements are extremely heated.

“It makes a difference if you're in a state that's drilling-oriented,” an association executive told me. “Up in New York,” he added, “there are a lot of environmental activists, a lot of people who raise a lot of hell.”

It may not be the Ultimate Fighting Championship, but the battle over fracking has nonetheless developed into a brawl.

Launch an Internet search for the term “fracking,” and you will find a litany of disagreements and lawsuits. Oddly, given all the outcry over the potential for catastrophe that could come from drilling, you won't find any notable fracking-related insurance claims. Look for an insurer who's worried about covering risks related to fracking, and you likely will be searching for a long time.

And that may be a reliable indicator that a lot of the hysteria around fracking is misguided. It's a risk that insurers are comfortable with, given that fracking has been around for decades, and underwriters have worked out the exposures pretty well throughout the years.

In fact, one industry source told me that insurers are quite happy with the controversy, as it has caused energy companies to make sure they are covered for any sort of fracking eventualities that might arise. That could mean buying more insurance, which leads to smiles on underwriters' faces.

Does the insurance industry's comfort level mean there will never be a groundwater pollution claim or environmental problems? Of course not. Already there have been instances of fracking chemicals leaking from above-ground operations and contaminating surface water.

What's certain is that the hysteria that's erupted around fracking is not doing any good for the efforts to responsibly extract clean energy sources from the ground. Too much of the hysteria, especially in the blogosphere, is overblown. No one wants dirty water. Not even the energy companies, given that they have to drink it, too.

It's not unreasonable to assume that a driller is going to do everything possible to avoid polluting groundwater. Anything less could lead to litigation, defense costs, insurance claims—and a nasty glass of tap water.