Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden switched his position on the use of fossil fuels and fracking on Monday. During his visit to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Biden claimed, “I am not banning fracking.”
”Let me say that again: I am not banning fracking. No matter how many times Donald Trump lies about me,” he said.
Biden discusses his energy plan: "I am not banning fracking. Let me say that again: I am not banning fracking. No matter how many times Donald Trump lies about me." https://t.co/LBywpukq9G pic.twitter.com/B5QXkBoQbt
— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 31, 2020
Biden was referencing Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention last week.
“Biden has promised to abolish the production of American oil, coal, shale, and natural gas, laying waste to the economies of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Colorado, and New Mexico, destroying those states,” Trump said.
The problem? Trump isn’t the one who is lying about Biden’s position on fracking. Biden has promised to ban fracking multiple times, citing fossil fuels as dangerous for the environment.
“We would work it out. We would make sure it’s eliminated,” Biden said about coal and fracking from the Democratic presidential debate stage just a few months ago.
SUPERCUT: Biden promises "no more" fracking if he's elected President. pic.twitter.com/iWcsU2Yam8
— Abigail Jackson 🇺🇸 (@abigailmarone) August 31, 2020
“We are going to get rid of fossil fuels,” he also promised from the podium at a New Hampshire rally.
How long before the Washington Post scrubs this?
"Biden indicates from the debate stage that he would ban all fracking" pic.twitter.com/TNv6vZa6nG
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 31, 2020
Even though Biden claims to have changed his position on the issue to only accommodate some fracking, his VP pick Kamala Harris is also a strong advocate against fossil fuels, “fully supporting the progressive Green New Deal and a ban on fracking everywhere.”
Harris proudly co-sponsored the Green New Deal, which would ban fracking, and is vocal about her position on creating newer, cleaner energy. Biden’s official policy positions on energy and the environment were overseen by Green New Deal creators.
Kamala Harris in a CNN townhall – "There is no question I am in favor of banning fracking,"
She is running on the ticket with Joe Biden. https://t.co/Gvk1iZELnF
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) August 31, 2020
One Forbes article even described the Biden-Harris ticket’s environmental platform as if “the Democratic Party carved its anti-oil and gas credentials into stone.”
Biden’s attempted appeal to the working class of Pennslyvania on Monday included promises to “build [things] back better.”
“We won’t just build things back the way they were before. We’re going to build them back better with good-paying jobs building our nation’s roads, bridges, solar arrays, windmills,” he said, also saying the clean energy strategy has “a place for the energy workers right here in western Pennsylvania.”
As President Trump pointed out in his criticism of Biden, however, Pennslyvania is “a big fracking state. If you didn’t have energy produced that way…you’d have unemployment that you wouldn’t believe.”
A study by the National Ocean Industries Association (NOLA) has also said that a ban on fracking could “cost almost 200,000 jobs, deny the U.S. government billions of revenue dollars, and push offshore production to other countries.”
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