How the issue of fracking is playing in Pennsylvania ahead of the 2024 election
HOWE TOWNSHIP, Pa. — John Stewart, vice president of Cameron Energy Co., and Robert Bair, president of the Pennsylvania State Building and Construction Trades Council, are on different sides in the presidential race.
HOWE TOWNSHIP, Pa. — John Stewart, vice president of Cameron Energy Co., and Robert Bair, president of the Pennsylvania State Building and Construction Trades Council, are on different sides in the presidential race. But they are on the same side on fracking — a key energy and environmental issue in the biggest battleground state in the election.
Comfortable majorities of Pennsylvania voters support fracking, according to multiple recent polls. But while former President Donald Trump’s base draws almost entirely from that side of the question, Democrats like Vice President Kamala Harris and Pennsylvania’s governor and senators have to balance a coalition that includes supporters and opponents of a major industry in the state.
For Harris, that means getting support from the likes of Bair — who represents 130,000 union construction workers across Pennsylvania and says the U.S. would not be able to function without fracking — as well as Katie Blume, the political and legislative director of Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania, who told NBC News that she believes Pennsylvania lacks strong regulations and that fracking is not critical for a modern society, praising the Biden-Harris administration’s historic climate legislation.
Residents and elected officials in Exton, Pa., have expressed strong opposition to the pipelines cutting through their backyards and neighborhoods carrying highly volatile fracked gas liquids to be shipped overseas for plastics manufacturing.Erik McGregor / Getty ImagesFor Trump, it’s simpler: Pennsylvania sits on top of “liquid gold,” he says, and it should “drill, baby, drill.”
Meanwhile, Harris has changed her position on the issue since her first presidential campaign in 2019, now saying she has made it “clear” she would not ban fracking.
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