The Obama administration, while weighing new chemical disclosure requirements for the natural gas industry when it operates on public lands, signaled support for the drilling boom that technological advance has spurred in the United States.

“From our point of view, there is a bright future for natural gas,” said Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Tuesday, at a forum he convened to address the environmental questions around hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”—the use of a high-pressure water and chemical mix to force natural gas from underground shale and tight sand formations.

(See National Geographic 3-D Interactive, “Breaking Fuel From Rock”)

Salazar said his department is considering a policy that would require companies to disclose the content of their frack fluids