Government panel: Fracking chemicals should be revealed

Associated Press

ALLENTOWN, Pa.

A U.S. Department of Energy panel wants energy companies to reveal all the chemicals they use in a drilling technique that has allowed them to reach huge and previously inaccessible deposits of natural gas and paved the way for tens of thousands of new wells but that critics say could poison water supplies.

The panel, convened by Energy Secretary Steven Chu at the request of President Barack Obama, contends there’s little risk that the chemicals injected thousands of feet underground will ever reach shallow drinking-water aquifers. But with increasing public concern about the drilling process, called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, there’s no reason why companies can’t publicly disclose all the ingredients, the panel said in a report being released today.

“In our judgment, they should disclose the entire suite of chemicals,” except in “very rare” instances in which chemicals are judged to be truly proprietary, John Deutch, chairman of the Shale Gas Subcommittee of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board, said.

The panel said there are more pressing concerns associated with intensive shale gas extraction.

The focus of gas drilling companies has shifted to the Marcellus Shale, a massive rock formation underlying New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.