Salazar warns of public ‘backlash’ against gas fracking

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Thursday defended a push for industry disclosure of chemicals used in natural-gas drilling by warning of a public backlash against gas development absent more transparency.

Interior may issue rules to compel industry disclosure of fluids injected through the gas drilling method called hydraulic fracturing — or “fracking” — when drillers are operating on public lands.

In comments to reporters, Salazar called natural gas a “very important part” of the country’s energy future, noting it can boost the economy and security.

“But we are going to have a huge backlash, it seems to me, from the American public if we continue to inject chemicals and fluids into the ground without people knowing what it is that’s being injected,” he said after testifying before the House Natural Resources Committee about Interior’s budget proposal.

“So we are engaged today ... in a conversation with industry and with others about the disclosure of hydraulic fluids that are being injected into the underground, and I will say that very responsible, very reputable and very big companies in this country themselves favor disclosure, and are disclosing the chemicals that they are using,” he added.

But he wouldn’t say whether Interior will move ahead with a rule to compel disclosure. “We are looking at it,” Salazar said, noting “active conversations” with the industry and others.

Fracking involves high-pressure injections of chemicals, water and sand to break apart rock formations and enable trapped gas to flow.

The technique has helped enable a boom in development of gas from shale rock formations in a number of states. But the boom is also creating fears — which the industry calls overblown — about contamination of water supplies.

Several Democrats are calling for tighter EPA scrutiny, especially in the wake of a major New York Times investigative story on discharge of wastewater that contains chemical and radioactive elements into rivers that supply drinking water.