Democrats Determined to Frack Themselves

When I heard Elizabeth Warren declare some weeks ago that she’d ban all hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) for oil and natural gas, my immediate reaction was, “Well, there goes Pennsylvania and also any remote chance Democrats might have winning Ohio again.” This issue could even make Colorado interesting, at least for the likely Democratic nominee for Senate, John Hickenlooper, who is a rare pro-oil and gas Democrat. He’ll have to distance himself from the national ticket.

It seems the New York Times is worried, too. Today the Times reports:

In Crucial Pennsylvania, Democrats Worry a Fracking Ban Could Sink Them

[A] pledge to ban all hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, could jeopardize any presidential candidate’s chances of winning this most critical of battleground states — and thus the presidency itself. So as Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren woo young environmental voters with a national fracking ban, these two Democrats are uneasy.

“In Pennsylvania, you’re talking hundreds of thousands of related jobs that would be — they would be unemployed overnight,” said Mr. Fetterman [PA’s lt. governor], who endorsed Mr. Sanders in 2016 before Donald J. Trump won his state, pop. 12.8 million, by just over 44,000 votes. “Pennsylvania is a margin play,” he added. “And an outright ban on fracking isn’t a margin play.”

And don’t forget that Joe Biden has said he’s down with this nonsense, with promises of how there will be so many better “green jobs” with the energy revolution that Washington can deliver with the mere snap of the fingers. He must believe $50,000-a-month natural gas type jobs grow on trees in Ukraine or something. Of course, Hillary made these same promises to coal miners in 2016, too. But no one who doesn’t live in the dream world of a college town believes these kind of political promises any more.

Which is why I hope the Democratic Party runs hard with their anti-energy platform.

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