It seems so improbable that protest and activism could put a stop to natural gas drilling in inhabited areas that it seems to me that the best approach is to lobby for tighter regulation on how and where it can be done, and what precautions must be taken. The author of this article says of the attempts to scare the community into action that "The misinformation is going to bite people in the butt when it comes to defending regulations."
http://magazine.14850.com/2009/1118naturalgas.html