The draft plan is open to public comment

WASHINGTON (EPA) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) submitted its draft study plan on hydraulic fracturing for review to the agency’s Science Advisory Board (SAB), a group of independent scientists, on Feb. 8. Natural gas plays a key role in our nation’s clean energy future, and the process known as hydraulic fracturing is one way of accessing that vital resource.

Much of the controversy around hydraulic fracturing has centered on whether chemicals used in the process can contaminate drinking water supplies, "but despite an increase in the number of such reports nationally, environmentalists’ claims have been undermined by the fact that no scientific links have been established between fracturing — which involves blasting a solution of water, sand and chemicals deep underground to free natural gas — and reports of contaminated water," John Gramlich of Stateline writes in a good

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