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 companies can’t publicly disclose all the ingredients, the panel said in a report being released today.
