FrackNation was inspired by a confrontation between Josh Fox, the director of the 2010 documentary Gasland, and documentary filmmaker Phelim McAleer. While Fox was promoting his film project McAleer confronted him about the historical records of people being able to ignite natural gas in water at "burning springs" long before fracking started. McAleer told the Los Angeles Times that Fox did not include that information in his film because he did not think it was relevant towards the current drilling impacts of certain areas.[2][dead link] since the people interviewed in the film claimed that the contamination was caused by the drilling.[3]
After a video of the confrontation[4] was made public on various websites, Fox and his lawyers got the video removed from YouTube and Vimeo. However, FrackNation's filmmakers managed to fight the removal and restore access to the video despite infringing on HBO's copyrights.
McAleer told Politico he was motivated to make the film by what he saw as the "one-sided approach taken by the media, 'outsiders' and 'urban elites'" on the fracking process. McAleer said there has been no real debate on the issue, with the environmental lobby relying on emotion and scare tactics to condemn fracking.[5]
In an interview with the Pittsburgh Post Gazette McAleer stressed the film is trying to show both sides of the fracking discussion. "We're definitely covering the contamination" in the film, McAleer said. "We feature both sides

A public crowdfunding campaign was launched on Kickstarter on Feb. 6, 2012. FrackNation was featured as the most popular project in Kickstarters film section. It reached the fundraising target of $150,000 within three weeks of launching.[8]
The filmmakers offered an executive producer credit to anyone who supports the project. Currently FrackNation has 2,405 executive producers. More than 2,000 contributors helped the filmmakers reach their target fundraising.[9] The average individual donation to the film was $60.
In order to maintain full transparency and keep the film free from special interests, McAleer and McElhinney have returned all donations from companies or senior executives in the gas industry.[1][10]