FracTracker Alliance is a

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, Trust (business), trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of ...

non-profit that shares maps, images, data, and analysis related to the

oil and gas industry The petroleum industry, also known as the oil industry, includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transportation (often by oil tankers and pipelines), and marketing of petroleum products. The largest volume products ...

hoping that a better informed public will be able to make better informed decisions regarding the world's energy future. FracTracker's information is focused in large part on unconventional extraction methods. FracTracker Alliance is based in the United States and has offices in

Camp Hill, Pennsylvania Camp Hill is a borough in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is southwest of Harrisburg and is part of the Harrisburg–Carlisle metropolitan statistical area. The population was 8,130 at the 2020 census. There are many large ...

;

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

; Cleveland, Ohio; Washington, DC; New York; Berkeley, and California. FracTracker reportedly aims to provide non-partisan information, and has no official position on the practice of

hydraulic fracturing Fracking (also known as hydraulic fracturing, fracing, hydrofracturing, or hydrofracking) is a well stimulation technique involving the fracturing of Formation (geology), formations in bedrock by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the ...

History

FracTracker Alliance originated as FracTracker.org, a project of the Center for Healthy Environments and Communities at the

University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health The School of Public Health (sometimes shortened to Pitt Public Health) is one of 17 schools at the University of Pittsburgh. The school, founded in 1948, was first led by Thomas Parran, surgeon general of the U.S. Public Health Service. It is r ...

with the objective of crowd-sourcing data concerning

unconventional gas Unconventional (oil and gas) reservoirs, or unconventional resources (resource plays) are accumulations where oil and gas phases are tightly bound to the rock fabric by strong capillary forces, requiring specialized measures for evaluation and ...

extraction from the

Marcellus Shale Marcellus may refer to: People * Marcellus (name) * Marcellus of Ancyra, fourth-century Christian bishop and theologian * Marcus Claudius Marcellus, Roman commander * Marcellus of Tangier * Marcellus Empiricus * Marcellus (nephew of Augustu ...

. Between 2010 and early 2012, FracTracker was funded by grants from The

Heinz Endowments The Heinz Endowments is a philanthropic organization in the United States, and was formed with the combined support from two smaller, private foundations: the Howard Heinz Endowment and the Vira I. Heinz Endowment. It awards more than $60 million a ...

and The

William Penn Foundation The William Penn Foundation is a grant-making foundation established in 1945 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by businessman Otto Haas and his wife Phoebe, and initially called the Phoebe Waterman Foundation. It strives to improve "the quality ...

. FracTracker.org's original director, Dr. Volz, left the University of Pittsburgh in April 2011. Soon after Dr. Volz left the University, FracTracker.org split off from the University as well (in early 2012), and formed a new non-profit named The FracTracker Alliance. Many members of the original team from the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

who had been working on FracTracker.org left the University to work for the new non-profit as (or shortly after) it was created.

Current Initiatives

Mapping

FracTracker Alliance is known for its mapping of energy issues. FracTracker offers a variety of maps detailing

drilling Drilling is a cutting process where a drill bit is spun to cut a hole of circular cross section (geometry), cross-section in solid materials. The drill bit is usually a rotary Cutting tool (machining), cutting tool, often multi-point. The bit i ...

-related activity, and more recently renewable energy progress on its website. FracTracker'
data
comes from a variety of sources including state environmental agencies, news reports, freedom of information requests, user reports, collaborations with other groups, and information from other agencies. FracTracker makes its data available for download, and makes clear where the data came from by including a variety of metadata along with its data (e.g. information about who created the original content, what is included in the dataset, when the dataset was taken, where the data features were located, and information about any changes from the original dataset). FracTracker.org also offers regular in-person trainings about how to use their mapping tools. FracTracker.org originally used a proprietary mapping system designed by Rhiza Labs in Pittsburgh, but transitioned to a customized mapping platform based on

Esri Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., doing business as Esri (), is an American Multinational corporation, multinational geographic information system (GIS) software company headquartered in Redlands, California. It is best known for ...

's ARCGis Online that allows users to download full datasets both through FracTracker and through Esri.

Fee-for-service

FracTracker Alliance collaborates with many other nonprofit organizations, providing them with visualizations and information that help them communicate about energy choices and their impacts. These services are typically provided on a pro-bono basis, but for larger projects they apply a fee-for-service structure.

References

External links