That is an extremely well crafted but completely disingenuous statement. Of course, fractures can extend out of the shale and fluids can migrate out. However, that does not mean that those fluids ever make it to an aquifer.
It is counter-productive for gas companies to fracture formations in such a way that the fractures extend out of the producing horizon - not because they fear losing gas to higher formations but because what usually happens is that water enters the gas-bearing formation and causes the loss of gas production.
hate to borrow your word again but this person defines Luddite.
On a investment related note: this is the kind of article that service companies love to hear. They'll be more than happy to provide more cement logging services and nobody in the industry will cry if margins on cement improve. The larger production companies won't care too much because they'll pass on the additional costs. This will be another stake in the well-being of small producers.
This type of bad well construction is actually pretty easy to diagnose. A suite of downhole geophysical logs (including the casing collar log) can be run to identify poor grout jobs.
It would seem that the industry would be better off routinely running the diagnostic testing and accepting liability for poorly constructed wells (where necessary) rather having these types of dispersion made about the whole fracking methodology.