President Obama's Interior Department (DOI) today contradicted media reports on a government study that supposedly tied natural gas drilling and fracking to a rise in earthquakes.

"There is no evidence to suggest that hydraulic fracturing itself is the cause of the increased rate of earthquakes," Interior Department Deputy Secretary David Hayes wrote today. Hayes does believe that a rise in minor earthquakes is "man-made," but added that "it remains to be determined if they are related to either changes in production methodologies or to the rate of oil and gas production."

Environmentalist groups often oppose fracking. The United States Department of Agriculture delayed a mineral lease auction last year in Ohio in order to study the environmental impact of fracking.

Commenting on reports that an Interior Department study had found a connection between fracking and earthquakes, Hayes said "the accuracy of these media reports varied greatly."