Despite extreme environmentalists’ hysterical pursuit of evidence to conclusively link up the drilling practice of hydraulic fracturing with the regional phenomenon of groundwater contamination over the past couple of years… What am I saying. The dearth of actual evidence hasn’t done much to deter the really hardcore eco-radicals, like “documentary” filmmaker Josh Fox’s now infamous and completely misleading image of drilling-area residents lighting the methane in the water from their sinks on fire, and his attempt to double down on the outright falsehood in his recent sequel.

But even the zealous and well-funded bureaucrats at Environmental Protection Agency have so far failed to find that much-desired connection. Last month, the administration suddenly pulled back from their study exploring the potential links between fracking and instances of groundwater contamination in Wyoming — based on the oh so unfortunate lack of science available to support their foregone conclusion.

And now, a preliminary federal study released today actually just comes right out and says it: We tried. No luck. Boom.

A landmark federal study on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, shows no evidence that chemicals from the natural gas drilling process moved up to contaminate drinking water aquifers at a western Pennsylvania drilling site, the Department of Energy told The Associated Press.

After a year of monitoring, the researchers found that the chemical-laced fluids used to free gas trapped deep below the surface stayed thousands of feet below the shallower areas that supply drinking water, geologist Richard Hammack said.

Although the results are preliminary — the study is still ongoing — they are a boost to a natural gas industry that has fought complaints from environmental groups and property owners who call fracking dangerous.

Drilling fluids tagged with unique markers were injected more than 8,000 feet below the surface, but were not detected in a monitoring zone 3,000 feet higher. That means the potentially dangerous substances stayed about a mile away from drinking water supplies.

The eco-radicals’ misbegotten quest to implicate hydraulic fracturing as at all costs will never cease to mystify. With natural gas acting as the leading cause of the United States’ lately reduced carbon emissions — their own stated goal — you’d think they’d want to take “yes” for an answer, wouldn’t you?