What is Fracking? What is Methane? - Moms Clean Air Force

Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is the process of drilling natural gas from shale formations. This technology is being used across the US and has contributed to a dramatic increase in the use of natural gas for electricity in recent decades. Natural gas is mostly methane. Methane is a flammable gas, carried through a network of pipelines and burned for energy and cooking.

Methane is an aggressive climate pollutant, with more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide during the first 20 years it’s in the atmosphere.

Fracking, strictly speaking, describes breaking into shale formations—though we often use the term as shorthand for the entire process. Methane leaks are a problem through every single step of oil and gas development, from the moment the drill bit goes into the ground until the gas is delivered to your house. Methane is accidentally or purposely leaked and vented at many stages of natural gas extraction, transportation, and use, representing a major source of dangerous climate pollution in the US.

Other significant sources of methane emissions include cattle and landfills.

What can methane and fracking pollution do to you?

Although not harmful in and of itself, the release of methane into the atmosphere is polluting our climate and is creating a grave global public health threat. Reducing methane emissions is essential to fighting climate change—and safeguarding the health and future of our children.

Methane occurs in geologic formations right alongside other toxic volatile organic compounds, such as benzene and formaldehyde, which means that wherever methane is leaking or vented, you may be breathing potentially harmful air pollution. These pollutants can cause cancer and other health problems, as well as combine with heat and sunlight to form ground-level ozone, or smog, which is harmful to breathe.

Moms have been fighting oil and gas pollution for 10 years.

Cutting methane pollution is a key part of the urgent fight against climate change. Climate change is a health crisis not in some distant future, but right now. We can see climate impacts when extreme storms can trigger massive power outages, when smoke from record-breaking wildfires can poison the air for millions across the West, when severe heat waves regularly threaten public health, preying especially on older adults, pregnant women, and low-income communities.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report in August 2021, detailing the links between human-caused greenhouse gas pollution and unprecedented climate change, Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. This report makes it clear that one of the fastest ways to slow climate warming in the near term is by cutting human-caused methane emissions from sources like the oil and gas industry, which is the largest industrial methane polluter in the United States.

Moms Clean Air Force members worked hard for years to finalize EPA’s 2016 rule to limit methane emissions from newly built or recently modified oil and gas operations. Unfortunately, the 2016 EPA methane rule was rolled back by the previous administration, but not without Moms Clean Air Force members speaking at the public hearing against this harmful action. In 2021, moms worked with Congress to reverse the rollback and reinstate the 2016 methane rule, paving the way for EPA to further strengthen federal methane rules. But there is more work to be done.

Thankfully, President Biden listened to moms and issued an executive order in January 2021 directing EPA to propose a methane rule for new and existing sources of oil and gas operations by later that year. In response, EPA proposed the first rules to cut methane and other harmful pollutants from new and existing oil and gas operations in November 2021. Dozens of Moms showed up at a virtual public hearing in December and thousands more submitted written comments to urge EPA to strengthen this proposal.

EPA heard our concerns! In November 2022, the agency released an updated methane proposal. The new proposal will reduce methane pollution from sources covered by the rule by 87% below 2005 levels. It also strengthens leak detection and repair requirements, continues to require equipment not to emit methane, addresses high-emission incidents with a new monitoring response program, and requires that abandoned wells are subject to inspections until they are closed. Again, Moms Clean Air Force showed up in force for the EPA hearing on this proposal and submitted thousands of written comments in support. We anticipate that this methane rulemaking will be finalized in the fall of 2023.

Learn more about how methane pollution from fracking contributes to climate change and degrades our air quality by exploring our resources.

Support state and national efforts to limit methane pollution from the oil and gas industry.