ENERGY SECURITYWhy Fracking Matters in the 2024 U.S. Election

By Diana Roy

Published 12 October 2024

The fracking boom has transformed the United States into the world’s leading producer of oil and gas. With presidential candidates Harris and Trump clashing on climate and energy policy, the practice is once again in the spotlight.

Fracking, shorthand for hydraulic fracturing, has revolutionized the U.S. energy market over the past two decades, propelling the United States to become the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas. Ahead of the November election, however, fracking is again one of the most divisive political issues, with presidential nominees Kamala Harris and Donald Trump staking out differing views on climate goals, fossil fuels, and renewable energy. Grassroots opposition to the practice has led to bans in five states, even as it has become increasingly central to the economies of North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and others.

What Is Fracking?
Fracking is a technique used to extract natural gas and oil in shale formations or other forms of impermeable rock. It involves drilling deep below the earth’s surface, sometimes as far as ten thousand feet, then drilling sideways for a mile or more. Since the oil and gas is trapped in dense layers of rock and cannot flow through a well by drilling alone, producers need to pump a high-pressure mixture of water, sand, and chemicals to open fractures in the rocks.

The fracturing technique was first introduced into commercial practice in 1949 before being combined with advances in horizontal drilling in the late 1990s. Together, the two processes have allowed producers to tap into deposits [PDF] that were previously inaccessible—also referred to as “unconventional” sources. 

What Is Its Role in the U.S. Economy?
Since 2008, the “shale revolution” has helped turn the United States into the world’s leading oil producer after decades of falling output. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that in 2023, fracking added roughly three billion barrels of crude oil to U.S. production—about 64 percent of the nation’s total output.

Growing production enabled the United States to finally become a net energy exporter in 2019, the first time in sixty-seven years. It had already become a net exporter of natural gas in 2017, and those exports hit record levels in 2023. Economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas estimated in 2019 that the shale boom contributed 10 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) growth between 2010 and 2015 by lowering fuel prices.