The debate over natural gas development and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking -- the process of injecting huge volumes of water, sand and chemicals deep underground to break up rock formations and release gas for harvesting -- appeared to enter a new phase last week.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar hinted at the formation of new federal guidelines to govern the practice on public lands -- including rules requiring gas companies to disclose the chemicals they use for fracking.
That's long been a sticking point in the debate, with companies expressing reluctance to publicly disclose what they call their proprietary fracking cocktails, and environmental groups and other opponents calling that reluctance a specious attempt to frustrate efforts that would link the chemical formulas to groundwater contamination.
"My own view is that there ought to be disclosure with some safeguards concerning proprietary information," Salazar said at a press briefing sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor last week in Washington, D.C. "So we are in the process of working on a rule and I don't know when we will have that rule ready to go. But I believe it is a necessary part of creating a good opportunity for the future of natural gas."