What is Fracking? What is Methane?

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 84 times the warming power of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in the short term.

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 for new and existing oil and gas operations in November 2021, and moms showed up to support methane rules. The proposed rules are a significant step forward but could have been stronger. Now, EPA is working on a supplemental rule that we need to address additional protections from harmful methane pollution.

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.