RALEIGH — The new commission that’s writing rules to allow natural gas fracking in North Carolina while protecting neighbors and the environment is getting down to work.

The Mining and Energy Commission created by state lawmakers this year held its first orientation meeting on Thursday. The state environmental agency’s top assistant says the panel’s task is balancing what gas drillers are allowed to do while protecting current users of water and land.

The 12-member panel and state employees working with it will develop new rules on a process called horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing that frees untapped underground deposits of oil and gas.

North Carolina’s environmental agency said in a report earlier this year that fracking could be safe if regulated properly.