U.S. Rep Eric Massa [1] announced possible support this week for H.R. 7231 [2], a bill meant to force natural gas producers to reveal the concentrations and contents of the chemicals used in the drilling process.

Congressman Eric MassaBack in 2005, the Bush administration exempted the industry from the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act [3], thereby allowing them to practice a process known as hydro-fracturing without having to disclose all chemicals used.

Recently, the issue has come to the fore [4] due, in large part, to a drilling boon of the Marcellus Shale, a geological formation extending (much of it deep underground) from Ohio and West Virginia up into Pennsylvania, the Catskills and the Southern Tier. The entire formation [5] is estimated to contain somewhere between 168 to 516 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

While accessing a natural gas may be a necessity, Massa said during media a teleconference, "I don't want to be here 25 years from now when you cannot swim in the Finger Lakes or irrigate the fields of your winery with fresh water from a well."