professionals
Engineering
Engineers are naturally cautious people and cautious too about claims regarding an industry that is dominated by engineers and engineering. However, engineers are also responsible people and naturally need to take responsibility for mitigating the risks when working in a self regulatory sector like oil and gas.
Academic
Academics are also cautious like engineers. Unlike engineers though they are very rarely at the "coal face" and so understand what is or should be happening in theory but not always what is happening in reality. Academics are very much in the media spotlight and so highly influential. It is very important that experts in their chosen fields help inform the debate and not, accidentally or otherwise confuse the public and decision makers.
Political
The decision whether to frack or not to frack is always finally a political one. This has been seen with decisions regarding the only wells fracked in the UK (on the Fylde in Lancashire) being overruled by Sajiv Javid as Secretary of State. The problem comes when remote politicians are reliant on advice from advisors who are equally uninformed of the facts.