The vice presidential debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Kamala Harris on Wednesday featured discussion of some of the most pressing issues facing the country: the coronavirus pandemic, the economy, President Trump’s record and the Supreme Court. One topic that got more attention than most pundits might have expected was fracking.

Pence raised the subject several times, making repeated false claims that Joe Biden supports an outright ban on fracking. Biden’s environmental platform calls for a gradual phasing out of fossil fuels by 2050, but does not include a fracking ban. “I am not banning fracking. No matter how many times Donald Trump lies about me,” Biden said recently.

Fracking — short for hydraulic fracturing — is a process in which water, sand and chemicals are pumped into the ground at high pressure to break up layers of rock that have trapped oil and natural gas. Over the past 15 years, fracking has become the nation’s dominant method for extracting oil and gas from the earth. The technique has also fueled an American energy boom that has turned the U.S. into the world’s top oil producer.