By Liz Thatcher | July 19, 2012 | 2:04 PM EDT

The debate over natural gas extraction continues, but now celebrities are joining the ranks of left-wing environmentalists to try to prevent drilling.

The left claims that hydraulic fracturing, more commonly know as fracking, contaminated the water in Pennsylvania and Colorado, despite University of Texas  at Austin researchers who found “no evidence” of that. Small town support for fracking is rarely talked about in the media.

At a screening of anti-fracking documentary “Gasland” in June, Alec Baldwin even claimed that fracking “causes cancer or can potentially cause cancer to an elevated number of people,” a rumor circulated around far-left sites like Daily Kos and AlterNet.

For some reason, being an actor in Hollywood makes you an environmental expert, and now Beatles legend John Lennon’s own son is joining the fray.