The Obama administration is proposing to spend $45 million on a three-agency study of how to increase the safety of shale gas drilling, particularly the process known as hydraulic fracturing.

The study is a follow-up to the administration's "fracking panel," which found that many of the environmental and safety complaints of drilling critics are well-founded, and warned industry of a political backlash that could hinder oil and gas production. The panel was formally known as the Natural Gas Subcommittee of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board.

The study is a new addition to a proposal the administration has made for several years to eliminate a George W. Bush-era research and development program for fossil fuel. The administration has repeatedly said the Oil and Gas Research and Development Program does research that the oil and gas industry should pay for itself.

The oil and gas program was created in the 2005 energy bill passed by a Republican Congress and signed by President Bush. The same bill granted hydraulic fracturing an exemption from the permitting requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act.

The administration wants to take the money from the oil and gas program and put it toward research designed to "understand and minimize potential adverse environmental, health, and safety impacts of shale gas development through hydraulic fracturing," according to budget documents released today.

The study would be done by U.S. EPA, the Department of Energy and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Many people, particularly critics of drilling, use the term "fracking" to mean all aspects of drilling. But hydraulic fracturing is a process done at a specific time in the production of oil and gas. It involves injecting chemical-laced water underground at immense pressure to blast apart deep rock formations and release oil or gas.