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

New York Times ^ | January 27, 2020 | Lisa Friedman and Shane Goldmacher

[karpov]

PITTSBURGH — Though they are both Democrats, John Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, and Bill Peduto, this city’s mayor, have their differences on the environment.

Mr. Fetterman, who toppled an incumbent Democrat in 2018 from the left, nevertheless calls Pennsylvania “the Saudi Arabia of natural gas” and sees extracting and taxing gas as critical to the state’s economy and the “union way of life.” Mr. Peduto lobbied unsuccessfully against a local petrochemical plant and is steering his once-struggling steel town to be independent of fossil fuels within 15 years.

But they agree on one thing: 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, 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.”

Mr. Peduto said “the Warren-Sanders, ban-all-fracking-right-now” position would “absolutely devastate communities throughout the Rust Belt” and pit environmentalists against workers at a time when Democrats need both.

“If a candidate comes into this state and tries to sell that policy, they’re going to have a hard time winning,” he said.

Climate change has consistently polled as one of the top issues for Democratic primary voters, propelling Senators Sanders and Warren leftward even as the specific politics of fracking have gotten little airing.

[karpov]

Related thread: Democrats’ War on Fracking Will Cost Them in Battleground States. Ohio and Michigan have more than 400,000 shale workers, and Pennsylvania alone has 320,000.. The article later mentions a poll finding that 57% of Pennsylvania swing voters oppose a ban on fracking, with only 39% supporting. That poll also finds that 56% oppose a Medicare-for-all plan that eliminates private health insurance, and 72% oppose no longer detaining people who cross the border illegally.

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

Trump needs to get all RATS on record for their Fracking Ban platform and PUMP ADS 24/7 with them.

[dp0622]

Thanks for those numbers. Wow

[beethovenfan]

Frack the Dems

[Vigilanteman]

Outside of the Philadelphia area and within limited areas of some major cities such as Scranton, Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, we also have the crappiest roads in the nation and a need to get around by automobile.

[SaveFerris]

In Soviet Liberal Pennsylvania, Democrats destroy YOU!

(translation, in Democrat areas of Pennsylvania and other Democrat areas, Democrats destroy as much of the U.S.A. as they can).

(not saying everyone in Pennsylvania is a Democrat/Liberal)

[jmacusa]

Nothing like telling people you’re going to put them out of a job in order to get their vote.

[billorites]

[EEGator]

You don’t like I-81?

[SunkenCiv]

Gotta love those NY Slimes concern trolls. Do they mention this? If not, care to guess why that is?

• Biden Tells Coal Miners To "Learn To Code" [Derry, N.H.]

[Sans-Culotte]

“If they can frack, they can learn to code”.

[Alberta's Child]

Pennsylvania used to be known as a fracking state — due to the drilling activity in the Marcellus shale region.

What has changed in recent years is that PA is now attracting industrial development in industries that rely on access to cheap natural gas.

Shell is nearing completion of a large polyethylene manufacturing plant on the Ohio River just outside of Pittsburgh. I believe this is the largest private capital investment in the history of Pennsylvania.

In recent weeks there’s been an announcement that ExxonMobil is looking to construct a similar plant right downriver in Pennsylvania, West Virginia or Ohio. There are strong rumors that an orange-haired public official who lives in a large white house in Washington DC is going to be the keynote speaker at a groundbreaking ceremony for the new project in the weeks leading up to the 2020 election. :-)

[Vigilanteman]

Ever notice how the roads in GOP leaning areas always tend to have a lot MORE potholes in this Commonwealth?

[headstamp 2]

[[[Climate change has consistently polled as one of the top issues for Democratic primary voters,]]]

As long as it doesn’t affect THEIR jobs though.

[EEGator]

All the time.
I head out to Mifflintown, Ickesburg, Shermans Dale, Duncannon, etc...

[headstamp 2]

Yep the same could be happening in NY. Instead upstate is being depopulated.

[Bubba_Leroy]

A fracking ban may cost them elections (which is all that dems worry about) but it would cost the rest of us much more.

Because of fracking, the United States economy and energy supply are no longer completely dependent upon the whims of Arab dictators. Instead, the U.S. has become a net exporter of oil for the first time in 75 years.

[Wonder Warthog]

The “working man” should be coming to the realization that the Democrats are no longer the “party of the working man”.

[vpintheak]

Rats killing jobs can hurt them in the ballot box. Who’d a thunk it!?

[tomkat]

Nothin' like the sound of a dozen big diesels in the morning . . .