Banning Fracking is a Bad Idea

March 16, 2020

Fracking has been under attack by the political left for years. It’s a critical issue to many voters, and the final two Democratic presidential candidates have pledged the same action if voted into office: banning fracking. Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) has been a longtime proponent of a fracking ban, as it is included in his radical Green New Deal, and former Vice President Joe Biden (D-DE) just announced his support of a ban during last night’s debate.

In light of this new policy stance by Biden, Dr. Winston Porter, a national energy and environmental consultant, put things very simply in a piece in The Hill:

Banning of fracking would be counter effective.

Dr. Porter elaborated on the issue, explaining all that the invention of hydraulic fracking has brought America. One of the benefits of fracking has to do with our national security.

Fracking is on track to make the U.S. the world’s largest oil and gas exporter. This has benefited the U.S. balance of trade and enhanced our nation’s energy security.  

Specifically, we have put the brakes on Vladimir Putin’s efforts to politically and economically influence Europe, who was previously reliant on Russia for natural gas. Ironically, considering the eco-left’s concerns, fracking has significantly benefited the environment as well.

But with the start of fracking about 20 years ago, the use of coal has steadily moved down to about 25 percent of America’s electricity use. Huge amounts of carbon emissions are reduced in the U.S. simply by switching from coal to gas plants.

Perhaps most notable is fracking’s economic impact, though, which Dr. Porter reminds all of us not to forget:

Think about the millions of jobs that fracking has created, along with revenues for governments at all levels and money going to property owners who have received royalty payments for oil and gas production. The economic and environmental benefits from fracking have been enormous. In short, fracking is a state of the art technology which has enabled America to be the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas.

Particularly in these uncertain times, we need to encourage and rely on an industry that has always been there for us – not discredit it on a debate stage.