What You Should Know About Fracking

Mark Green
Posted September 3, 2024

Heads Up: With both presidential candidates agreeing that fracking is integral to America’s future energy mix and focused on a key fracking state, Pennsylvania – Vice President Kamala Harris was there over the weekend and former President Trump is scheduled to be there this week – let’s take a deeper dive into the technology, its role in the energy supply, American security and more.

What is Fracking? That’s short for hydraulic fracturing, the engineering technology of injecting a mixture that is 98% to 99% water and sand (and 0.5 to 2% chemical additives) into a drilled well, under pressure to create microscopic cracks in rock that releases embedded oil or natural gas.

Fracking has been used commercially since 1947, yet when paired with directional drilling – the ability to drill horizontally from a single vertical well, reducing the size of the surface drilling area by as much as 90% – it became the launching pad for historic increases in U.S. oil and natural gas production starting in the early 2000s. The “shale revolution” is largely responsible for the U.S. becoming the world’s leading oil and natural gas producer.

Why is Fracking a Big Deal? About 64% of U.S. crude oil production in 2023 came from tight-oil formations, the vast majority of which was unlocked using fracking, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Two decades ago, fracking accounted for just 7% of U.S. oil production.

The charts below plot the oil and natural gas production and the role of fracking in their growth:

Fracking and America’s Energy Advantage: In a world where oil and natural gas are the leading energy sources, American oil and natural gas production is the foundation of a U.S. energy advantage – an edge that is attributable to modern fracking.

This energy advantage translates into affordable and reliable energy for the economy and American families, businesses, and the nation’s energy security. Imports of foreign oil peaked in 2005 and have been on a downward trajectory since – coinciding with the growth of fracking and oil produced from domestic shale. Certainly, if fracking were curtailed or banned in the future, we could expect reduced domestic production and an increase in imports.

America is less reliant on foreign sources of oil, less vulnerable to supply shocks stemming from geopolitical events around the world and more able to manage its energy future, thanks to fracking.

Making Climate Progress: Thanks to increased use of natural gas, developed with fracking, in the power sector – the U.S. has led the world in reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions since 2005. 

Natural gas also is responsible for more than 60% of the CO2 emissions reductions resulting from fuel switching, relative to 2005.

Export Benefits: Because shale reserves containing oil and natural gas have become safely accessible through fracking, the U.S. has been able to export natural gas and oil to allies abroad, strengthening America’s energy leadership.

The U.S. has become the world’s leading natural gas exporter, the benefit of which was clearly seen in 2022, when American liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments helped Europe avert the worst of an energy crisis after Russia invaded Ukraine and began restricting natural gas to countries that opposed its aggression. At the same time, U.S. natural gas production allowed American families to benefit from some of the lowest residential natural gas prices in the world. American LNG exports also provide allies with the opportunity to reduce their emissions, by using natural gas instead of other fuels, as the U.S. has done.

This is part of the reason the U.S. Energy Department’s current pause on new and pending LNG export permits is so misguided and unjustified.

Bottom Line: Again, it’s good both presidential candidates agree fracking is critical to America’s future. While a president cannot ban fracking – most energy development occurs on state and private lands – an administration can use regulation, infrastructure decisions and end-use restrictions (such as the recent EPA tailpipe rule) to greatly affect it. That said, there’s no question safe and responsible fracking is the main reason the U.S. today is an energy superpower. Preserving fracking, accessing resources and other actions are integral to America’s energy future – as detailed in API’s Five-Point Policy Roadmap.

API President and CEO Mike Sommers:

“Hydraulic fracturing paved the way for the U.S. to lead the world in energy production, bolstering our economy and strengthening our national security. Now that both presidential candidates have affirmed their support for this critical technology, the next administration should be focused on policies that protect consumer choice, fix our broken permitting system, restore permits for LNG exports and expand access to the nation's vast energy resources.”