A fracking site in Washington Township, Pennsylvania. Ty Wright/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Should the U.S. Continue Fracking?

March 31, 2025

Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is a process for extracting oil and gas by directing high-pressure water into underground rock formations. It has been around since the 1940s, but its use grew substantially in the early 2000s as oil companies in the United States searched for new sources of energy to reduce America’s reliance on foreign oil. Today it generates two-thirds of the natural gas Americans use to heat and light their homes, and about half of all U.S. oil.

Proponents say the energy independence that comes with fracking keeps prices down as we transition to cleaner, renewable energies such as wind and solar. But toxic chemicals and pollutants released during and after fracking have raised many health and environmental concerns.

So should the U.S. continue fracking? An energy policy analyst and an environmental activist face off on the question.

With the rise of fracking 20 years ago, the price of natural gas in the United States plummeted, and it has since leveled out at a much lower price than before fracking was common. As a result, Americans pay less for their electricity. And since natural gas plants emit about half the carbon that coal plants do, climate-warming emissions have dropped substantially. Since 2005, the power sector has reduced its annual carbon emissions by around 18 percent, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Most of that decrease came from the coal-to-gas switch that happened with fracking.

Gas plants are also less expensive and more flexible to operate than coal plants, making them an excellent addition to power grids using renewable energies such as wind and solar. When the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining, grid operators can easily fire up gas plants to fill the gaps.

And while natural gas gets most of the headlines, fracking for oil has also benefited Americans. Producing our own oil makes us less dependent on foreign adversaries, such as Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, that have long manipulated production of their own oil resources to affect prices in America.

Fracking has reduced emissions and is easing the transition to a low-carbon future.

Electric vehicles may someday replace oil-powered ones. But EVs accounted for less than 10 percent of the new cars Americans bought in 2024. Fracking for oil will have to continue for at least a few more decades for driving to remain affordable to American consumers as the transition to EVs continues.

By the middle of the century, most American energy may very well come from low-carbon sources such as wind, solar, and even nuclear power. Even then, fracking could remain a valuable industrial process, producing geothermal heat and natural gas for power plants that capture their own carbon emissions. In the meantime, fracking is reducing emissions and providing more-affordable energy, easing the way to a low-carbon future.

—ALEX TREMBATH
The Breakthrough Institute

When fracking came to Pennsylvania 20 years ago, little research had been done on its risks to our environment, health and safety, and economy. Since then, thousands of studies have linked it to polluted air and water, earthquakes, and myriad health concerns, including cancer, cardiac conditions, low birth weight, neurological and respiratory conditions, and a skin rash so common we call it frack rash. That’s apart from fracking’s role in global warming, which has made ending it imperative.

The fracking process releases methane, the main ingredient in natural gas. Methane is 86 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide in the first 20 years it’s in the atmosphere. The gas is responsible for about one-third of the global warming we’re experiencing today, according to the International Energy Agency. It leaks at an alarming rate during drilling, as well as in the transmission of natural gas through pipes and other equipment.

Fracking’s role in global warming has made ending it imperative.

Even when a fracking operation is done, toxic gases and the chemicals that were used in the process continue to pose a harm to the environment. Every fracking well in operation today will eventually be decommissioned and abandoned. The plugs inserted into these wells to prevent gases and other toxins from leaking into the atmosphere and groundwater will break down over time. So the wells will have to be maintained in perpetuity—on the taxpayers’ dime. The cost of replugging them will be astronomical. Several states have enacted bans or moratoriums on fracking, and it’s prohibited in parts of Pennsylvania where it never began. But we need a rapid phaseout where fracking has been going on for decades.

The transition to renewable energy is already happening, as even fracking’s proponents acknowledge. But oil and gas companies have tried to slow that transition, going back on pledges to reduce oil and gas production, because their profits in the immediate future depend on fracking. For the sake of all of us, they need to stop blocking progress and start phasing out fracking now.

—KAREN FERIDUN
Founder, Berks Gas Truth

By the Numbers

PERCENTAGE of new natural gas wells in the U.S. that use fracking.

^{Source: U.S. Department of Energy}

NUMBER of states with fracking wells. Five states—Texas, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, West Virginia, and New Mexico—produced 73 percent of U.S. natural gas in 2024.