The White House is reviewing the controversial underground extraction technique for natural gas known as 'fracking.' Admin. scopes future of fracking

The White House is coordinating an administration-wide review of the controversial underground extraction technique for natural gas known as hydraulic fracturing and may force the industry to disclose the chemicals it uses.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Tuesday that the policy under review could force the natural gas industry to explain what fluids it uses to get at the hard-to-reach fossil fuel on public lands. The effort could help address local residents and environmental groups concerned about the technique's potential for drinking water contamination.


“The question is how we move forward in a way that we can reassure the American public that what we're doing is safe and protective of the environment," Salazar said at an Interior Department forum on the practice, also known as fracking.

The effort is part of a broader administration-wide review coordinated by the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said Interior Deputy Secretary David Hayes.

The Environmental Protection Agency is also trying to complete a study by late 2012 on the potential effects of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water, public heath and the environment. Eight fracturing companies have responded to EPA's voluntary information requests about the chemicals they use. But EPA earlier this month issued a subpoena to Halliburton after it didn’t respond to data requests.

“We’re looking at this issue from a global perspective, if you will,” Hayes said.

Hydraulic fracturing techniques have helped spawn a boom in natural gas production across the country as the industry finds more of the clean-burning fossil fuels in coalbeds and shale gas formations. Shale gas development sparked an 11 percent increase in domestic natural gas reserves, bringing them to their highest level since 1971, the Energy Information Administration said Tuesday. Reserves are most heavily concentrated in Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania.

The Interior Department manages natural gas exploration leases on federal lands in the West, with 12,000 leases currently producing the gas.

Carol Browner, the top White House energy and climate adviser said the administration wants to resolve the hydraulic fracturing issue. “It’s important we work together to try to solve these problems," she said.

Browner said natural gas issues were ripe areas for bipartisan compromise on Capitol Hill, with the side benefit that it could help displace coal and reduce greenhouse gases even without a mandatory cap on the emissions.

But the natural gas industry’s growth has come with a steady steam of complaints about possible environmental consequences. The New York General Assembly on Monday voted to ban new fracturing in the state until May 2011. Senate Democrats ran into Republican opposition earlier this summer in attempts to pass legislation that would have forced natural gas drillers to disclose the chemicals they pump into the ground.

Environmental groups say the lack of transparency raises more questions than answers.

“When fluids aren’t disclosed, you assume there’s something poisonous in there,” Peter Lehner, executive director of the Natural Resources Defense Council and a former assistant New York attorney general, said during Tuesday’s panel discussion.

Industry officials warn of the potential economic fallout if they face more federal and state regulations. John Felmy, chief economist of the American Petroleum Institute, said the potential moratorium in New York could cost the state billions in lost economic output and tax revenue, and he urged Gov. David Paterson (D) to veto it.

"Blocking important natural gas development and the creation of new jobs and revenues is not sound energy or economic policy," Felmy said.

Sherri Stuewer, a vice president of environmental policy and planning at the Exxon Mobil Corp., said trade associations and some states have set strong examples by establishing “best practices” to address public concerns about hydraulic fracturing.