Biden Claims He Won’t Ban Fracking (He’s Lying)

Democratic nominee Joe Biden on Monday claimed he would not ban fracking if elected president.

“I am not banning fracking, no matter how many times Donald Trump lies about me,” he said during an event at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA.

Pennsylvania’s population is massively benefitting from an oil and gas boom spurred by fracking in the state. What Biden is doing here is trying to court voters in his home state by saying what people want to hear. The truth is, Biden will need to significantly limit fracking if he hopes to achieve the goals outlined in his green energy agenda.

As critics were quick to point out, Biden has stated his intentions to eliminate fossil fuel, coal, and fracking multiple times on national television. This year, he said he wants to ban fracking on public property and would not issue new fracking permits if elected president. 

During his Monday speech, Biden described a “clean-energy strategy that has a place for the energy workers right here in western Pennsylvania” and promised to build things better than they were before “with good-paying jobs building our nation’s roads, bridges, solar arrays, and windmills.”

In my opinion, scaling down fracking with the intent to replace it with other projects is the same thing as banning fracking.

“We saw this in the Obama Administration as well…Obama said they would not ban coal plants; they did. Then Obama and Biden waged a war against coal using every tool of the federal government, which resulted in the destruction of 94% of the market value of the coal industry,” notes Steve Milloy, a member of the Trump EPA transition team.

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Hydraulic fracturing (AKA fracking) is a well stimulation technique that involves the fracturing of bedrock using pressurized liquid. Fracking is a relatively new industry and must be allowed to expand in order to be cost effective. Already, fracking has brought substantial benefits to the US in terms of energy cost, energy security, reduced air pollution, and reduced carbon emissions.

Opponents claim that fracking pollutes air and drinking water, contributes to greenhouse gases that cause global warming, and may even cause earthquakes.

Sources: 

Biden pledges ‘I am not banning fracking’ as Trump woos Pennsylvania voters

Biden’s confusing stand on fracking 

Face-checking Joe Biden in Pennsylvania on his fracking policy