Kamala Thiagarajan

Opinion | US, China fracking boom is reshaping global energy sector but at what cost?

For all the well-publicised economic benefits of fracking, we can’t ignore the harm it does to the environment and public health

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A shale gas well drilling site in St Mary’s, Pennsylvania. US Vice-President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party nominee in this year’s presidential election, is walking a fine line with voters in the gas-producing swing state that could decide the election. Photo: AP

Kamala Thiagarajan

Published: 4:30pm, 4 Sep 2024

In her first major interview as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, US Vice-President Kamala Harris said she would not ban fracking, a reversal of her position during her first presidential run in 2020.

The discourse around November’s election is going beyond the usual issues of illegal migration or the need for tougher laws on guns and crime. This year, hydraulic fracking is taking centre stage.

Fracking involves injecting water, sand or chemicals into a well to break up tightly packed bedrock and sand under the surface of the ground, enabling the extraction of natural gas and crude oil. It can also be used to extract oil and gas from under the seabed.

This technology has significantly lowered costs for shale oil, by some estimates down from as high as US$90 per barrel to nearly US$30 per barrel. It’s easy to see why this is an important issue to US voters as cheaper extraction costs can mean lower energy bills for consumers.

According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), there were around 23,000 fracking wells in the United States in 2000. That number rose to 300,000 wells by 2015, representing half of US crude oil production.

It’s little wonder that fracking is a hot-button issue, especially in Pennsylvania, one of a few swing states with the power to determine the presidential election. Just as in other parts of the world, fracking has driven economic and industrial growth in the US. Any administration that bans it is bound to struggle to win over voters.