Both Biden and Harris have stated that they would ban fracking. Biden indicated that he would ban new hydraulic fracturing in his debate with Bernie Sanders in March 2020, although he would not admit to that declaration when campaigning in Pennsylvania this year. Also, in September 2019 during a CNN town hall event, Kamala Harris said “There is no question I am in favor of banning fracking.” Fracking accounts for about 80 percent of our abundant and low cost natural gas, used for heating, cooking, generating electricity and in numerous industrial processes.
Continuing to allow hydraulic fracturing in U.S. shale basins also requires maintaining the ability to drill, produce, and transport oil and natural gas, which would include streamlining the siting and permitting of pipelines and accelerating research and development that offers the potential to double wellfield productivity. But, Biden’s climate change plan proclaims “that every federal infrastructure investment should reduce climate pollution” and would require “any federal permitting decision to consider the effects of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.”
*This article was adapted from content originally published by the Institute for Energy Research.
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