Biden’s Proposed Fracking Ban on Federal Lands and Waters Would Cause 1 Million Jobs Losses In 2022

September 4, 2020

Joe Biden has flip-flopped on his energy stance time and time again. The most controversial component of his aggressive $2 trillion climate plan is the ban on new oil and gas leases on federal lands and waters. While Biden has claimed he is not for an outright ban on the industry as a whole, industry leaders are skeptical.

Frank Macchiarola, senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs at the American Petroleum Institute, told FOX Business, “The United States has experienced essentially a generational shift in energy security, economic security, employment and CO2 emission reductions as a result of the shale revolution. A policy that would go backward from that, in our view, is the wrong direction.”

API told FOX:

 A ban that would begin in 2021 and apply to the development on federal lands and waters would cause the biggest hit to employment in its first two years with job losses reaching nearly 1 million in 2022.

The plan would result in a total of 417,000 fewer jobs by 2030 as other jobs would be created elsewhere in the economy, and a $700 billion hit to U.S. gross domestic product.

The fracking industry has secured America’s energy independence and the United States spot as the number one oil producer and a net exporter. Macchiarola said fracking is the “single most important technology in America’s energy security and in our reduction of CO2 emissions over the past 10 years. Not a single technology has done more to reduce carbon emissions than hydraulic fracturing. That’s fact.”

The article went on to say: 

A ban on the new development of federal lands in the offshore would cause production there to decrease by 44% for oil and 68% for natural gas, according to the API.

It would also result in the U.S. importing 2 million more barrels of oil per day, exporting 0.8 trillion cubic feet less of natural gas and spending $500 billion more on energy, API says.

The lower output would result in outsized job losses in oil-producing states like Texas, which could lose 120,000 jobs in 2022 if a development ban were implemented. Over the decade, New Mexico would see 5% of its workforce disappear.

The world economy has taken a huge hit over the past few months due to the coronavirus. The United States needs the oil and gas industry as part of our economic recovery. Dismantling the industry that supports 10 million jobs nationwide during a time of record unemployment and provides cheap and reliable energy to American households is bad economic and energy policy.