Democratic Presidential Candidates’ War on Fracking Will Cost Them 2020

February 4, 2020

The Democratic presidential primaries are heating up, and that means each candidates’ policies are being deeply analyzed more and more. But, in the case of fracking, very little policy analysis needs to be done – nearly every Democratic candidate, including Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Michael Bloomberg, has pledged to destroy millions of jobs and end the shale oil and gas revolution.

Stephen Moore, former economic advisor to President Trump, recently wrote in the Wall Street Journal that Democrats’ war on fracking will cost them in the all-important battleground states. He writes:

Ohio and Michigan have a combined total of more than 400,000 workers in the shale industry. Pennsylvania has another 320,000. Colorado and Florida each have more than 200,000 workers in oil and gas…Then consider Texas. Liberals have long wanted to turn the Lone Star State blue, or at least purple. But nearly two million Texans are employed in oil and gas and related industries.

In these areas, the natural gas and oil industry is revitalizing towns that were once left for dead and providing good-paying jobs for men and women who need to feed their families. How can a voter be expected to support someone who would be willing to take all of this away from them?

That’s a question that Daniel Turner, Founder and Executive Director of Power the Future, recently answered in a Fox News piece. He writes:

History repeats itself, so Biden or whoever else gets the Democratic presidential nomination will likely follow in Clinton’s losing footsteps as a result of their determination to drive the coal industry into extinction and drive all those who make a living from coal into unemployment.

The Democratic party has lost touch with the American people because of an infatuation with eco-left rhetoric. Stephen Moore states:

The recent rhetoric from Democratic presidential candidates leaves little doubt that the greens have won the battle for the party’s soul.

The current Democratic candidates are repeatedly proving that real results and everyday impact are not the priority of their policies. If a ban on fracking was actually implemented, it would be disastrous.

At least $1 trillion of U.S. economic output is related to the shale revolution, and more than 1.5 million Americans are employed in the industry. A PricewaterhouseCoopers study for the American Petroleum Institute found that at least four million American jobs are tied to the shale oil and gas revolution in areas like auto production, construction, petroleum engineering, pipe fitting, service stations, steel production and trucking.

Moore believes that, ultimately, these radical policies will result in another term for President Trump – we can only hope that he’s right.