The parliamentary select committee, chaired by Labour’s Joan Walley, has invited written evidence on what risks the process of hydraulic fracking – used to extract shale gas – poses to water supplies and water quality.
The EAC also wants the inquiry to address what safeguards are needed to limit the risks to the environment, as well as the implications fracking will have on carbon emissions.
The environment secretary Liz Truss told the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Efra) select committee in September that the extensive permitting regime will protect the UK’s water from any pollution from fracking.
She told MPs there are a range of government departments “making sure this is done properly”, including the Environment Agency, the health and safety executive, and the Department of Energy and Climate Change.
Truss added: “We can be sure this is safe and has a low impact on the environment.”
All written submissions on the EAC’s new inquiry into fracking should be made by 31 December 2014.