Drillers in N.Y. to tell state the chemicals they use to fracture rock; bills filed to require it across U.S.

Natural-gas drillers have agreed to give New York state regulators a list of the chemicals used in fracturing underground rock formations to release gas, reports Tom Wilber of the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin. "Industry officials have long resisted demands by activists to make the information public because they consider it a trade secret," Wilber notes. (Read more)

Official studies in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Colorado have concluded that hydro-fracturing has damaged water supplies, reports Abrahm Lustgarten of ProPublica., an independent, nopn-profit news site. Geochemist Anthony Gorody of Houston's Universal Geosciences Consulting told Lustgarten that the Colorado study was "junk science," and that pollution cases "are like plane crashes -- the extent tends to be fairly limited. I do not see any pervasive impact."(Read more)

Drilling has long been linked to water pollution, but the issue of deep gas drilling has risen as companies prepare to tap largely undrilled reserves such as the Marcellus Shale that runs from New York to far eastern Kentucky. Members of the U.S. House from New York and Colorado have introduced legislation to require disclosure of the ingredients.