“It makes anybody happy when they get something for a lesser price,” he says. “Now, of course, that has all kinds of repercussions on the other side, you know, in a state like Oklahoma, where a lot of the tax revenues come from it.”

More than 500 Oklahoma employees of Chesapeake Energy are out of a job following the latest layoffs Sept. 29th.

While the research connecting Oklahoma’s earthquake surge to oil and gas activity is built on algorithms, statistical analysis and computer models of fluid flow and seismic energy, monitoring compliance with regulatory actions designed to stop the shaking relies on muddy, manual fieldwork.

Fallin has evolved on the earthquake issue since the Prague quake in 2011.