The natural gas drilling method called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, was a topic of discussion at recent hearings on the President’s proposed energy budget for Fiscal Year 2013. (For background on this issue, see the March 2012 Congressional Digest, titled “Fracking and Drinking Water Safety.”)

On February 15, at a hearing of the House Natural Resources Committee, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar noted that the President has requested $45 million for a research and development initiative by the U.S. Geological Survey, the Department of Energy, and the Environmental Protection Agency “aimed at understanding and minimizing potential environmental, health, and safety impacts of sale gas development and production through hydraulic fracturing.”

Secretary Salazar also defended Interior Department rules, soon to be proposed, that would toughen regulation of fracking on public lands by requiring disclosure of chemicals used in fracking fluid. At a speech in Cleveland the day before, the Secretary said that without full disclosure, “the failure of giving the American people confidence that hydraulic fracturing will in fact work will end up being the Achilles heel of the energy promise of America.”

At a February 16 hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Energy Secretary Steven Chu highlighted the $12 million Energy Department portion of the R&D initiative contained in the Administration’s budget request, which he said would be used to “understand and minimize the potential environmental health and safety impacts of natural gas development through hydraulic fracturing.”

During the hearing, Senator Lisa Murkowski (AK-R) questioned the need for the request, saying that hydraulic fracturing had already been the subject of sufficient study. The Secretary responded that the initiative is needed to help facilitate improvements in drilling technology and practice “wherever possible, so that we can actually extract this resource in an environmentally responsible way.”