A chemical engineer with 20 years experience as an environmental regulator at the state and federal levels, Lisa P. Jackson is the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency for the Obama administration. As such, she has a lot on her plate that could affect the way the oil and gas industry does business. She spearheads the agency's efforts to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions or ozone, and water quality, throughout the U.S.

But it is the EPA's recent mandate to again study the effects of hydraulic fracturing of natural gas wells on human health and the environment that has oil and gas companies keeping a careful watch on her pronouncements.

Born in Philadelphia, Jackson was raised in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans. She was first in her class at St. Mary's Dominican High School, graduated summa cum laude from Tulane University's School of Chemical Engineering, and earned a master's in chemical engineering from Princeton.

For almost three years, she was commissioner of New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection. During that time, the state began to crack down on polluters in environmentally damaged sections of Camden and Paterson.

Even though Jackson supported Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic presidential primaries, she was chosen by President-elect Obama in mid-November 2008 to serve on his transition team for energy and the environment. He then named her to head the EPA.

She is no stranger to environmental issues. Prior to her work in New Jersey, Jackson was an EPA administrator for 16 years. Her duties included regulating the cleanup of hazardous-waste sites under the Super Fund program. She also ran various enforcement programs at the EPA, New Jersey's DEP, and its Land Use Management Program.

Public concern about hydraulic fracturing and the protection of drinking-water aquifers has caused the EPA to launch a new study of fracturing. In March, upon the request of Congress, the agency announced it will conduct the study, in cooperation with state officials who already regulate fracing. Initial results are to be announced in late 2012.

The agency has sought input from the oil and gas industry and citizens across the U.S., holding public meetings in Fort Worth, Denver and Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, where more than 1,200 participants attended. A similar meeting in upstate New York was canceled.

To the oil and gas industry, this is a frustrating case of déjà vu. EPA's June 2004 report, requested by the Clinton administration, had already found the fracturing of coalbed-methane formations "poses little or no threat" to underground sources of drinking water. This was despite the fact that coal seams generally are closer to formations carrying drinking water underground than are shale formations, according to the Marcellus Shale Coalition.

Fracing technology is exempt from federal regulation under the EPA's Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), despite the fact that several communities around the U.S. have reported drinking-water contamination they say is due to fracing near their homes.

As part of its study, in September the agency issued voluntary information requests to nine oilfield service companies. The EPA wants information on the chemical composition of fluids used in the frac process, data on the impacts of these chemicals on human health and the environment, standard operating procedures at frac sites, and the locations of sites where fracing has been conducted.

"This scientifically rigorous study will help us understand the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water—a concern that has been raised by Congress and the American people," says Jackson. "By sharing information about the chemicals and methods they are using, these companies will help us make a thorough and efficient review of hydraulic fracturing and determine the best path forward."

Air quality is another focus for the agency. Currently, the EPA is in a dispute with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) over regional air-quality issues and air-quality permitting of greenhouse gases, including how this may affect oil and gas operations. EPA is poised to begin requiring consideration of greenhouse-gas emissions in air-quality permitting on January 2, 2011.

This past October, the agency finalized a rule mandating the reporting of greenhouse-gas emissions from sources comprising 85% of total such emissions in the U.S. This excluded oil and gas production at the time—but in April 2010, the EPA announced public meetings to discuss an amendment to include emissions from the oil and gas sector, and "facilities that inject or geologically sequester carbon dioxide that were previously excluded from the reporting requirements."