Here in Washington, DC, the Environmental Protection Agency - EPA - has reversed course on fracking.

Initially, the agency had concluded in a draft report that released last year that fracking had no "widespread, systemic impact" on drinking water.

That conclusion outraged environmentalists as well factions of scientists within the EPA itself.

In a final report released last Tuesday, however, the EPA reached a different conclusion.

It now says that fracking DOES contaminate drinking water - although it still says that a lack of data makes a 100 percent definitive answer impossible.

Like President Obama's announcement yesterday of a permanent ban on drilling in the Arctic and along the Atlantic Seaboard - the EPA's new report might be the last piece of good environmental news for a long - long time.

Donald Trump's choice for EPA director - Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt - is a close ally of the fossil fuel industry and has received hundreds of thousands in campaign donations from big oil.

But with things looking as dire as they do - could the EPA have taken an even bolder stance on fracking?