Aug 20, 2020 4 min read

As the presidential campaign season heats up, the business of misrepresentation, often called campaigning, gets into full swing. There is low expectation that all statements heard will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, but occasionally statements are made that are so extraordinarily wrong and so consequential to those hearing them that they must be called out and set straight. Some of those statements are partial truths or distortions of statements for a candidate’s benefit and some are just flat-out incorrect assertions. Today I speak to one of each that appeared in a recent opinion piece in this newspaper.

The first was a distortion of statements and parsing of words. It was the assertion that Joe Biden “has been erroneously targeted as being against fracking … claiming he wants to end the industry.” The claim was that Biden “has only stated that he wants to reimplement a ban on fracking on federal lands.”

To quote Joe Biden, “I want you to look in my eyes. I guarantee you, I guarantee you we’re gonna end fossil fuel” (Sept. 6, 2019, Associated Press).

To quote Kamala Harris, “There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking” (Sept. 4, 2019, CNN).

Then there is the Biden factor itself. In the famous CNN interview with Dana Bash, the interviewer asked, “Just to clarify, would there be any place for fossil fuels, including coal and fracking, in a Biden administration?”

“No, we would – we would work it out. We would make sure it’s eliminated and no more subsidies for either one of those, either – any fossil fuel,” Biden said in response. It’s a little unclear exactly what Biden meant since he talked about eliminating fracking, eliminating fossil fuel and subsidies all in the same sentence.

The Biden-Harris Platform web page commits to zero fossil fuel power generation by 2035. It commits to implementing the Green New Deal (by whatever name they call it), which seeks to ban fossil fuels. The anti-fossil fuel commitments by themselves are commitments to banning fracking because that is how natural gas is obtained in economic quantity.

To say that he would only ban fracking on federal lands is ludicrous. He might start there because that is the area of easiest control but, as with everything else the Democrats do, control is never limited. The bans will be ever expanding.

The second statement is an incorrect assertion. That is the statement that a fracking ban, allegedly on federal lands, but with high probability of becoming universal, would have no effect on the state’s fracking industry.

To ban fracking in the United States would eliminate 19 million jobs and reduce the GDP by $7.1 trillion. Tax losses at the local and state level would be $1.9 trillion and choke funding for schools, infrastructure and public services.

The impact on energy prices would be hard to imagine. Estimates put natural gas price increases at 324% resulting in household energy bills four times what they are today. The price of gasoline would double. Oil prices would climb to $130 a barrel.

Consumer cost of living would increase an estimated $5,661 per capita. Household income would fall $3.7 trillion.

For Pennsylvania alone, the job loss would be over 600,000 jobs, and our GDP would decline $261 billion. State and local tax revenues would fall $234 billion and per capita cost of living would increase $4,654.

Those, my friends, are certainly not “no effect.”

Here’s the bottom line. It’s hard to know what Biden is saying or has said, but we do know for certain that Kamala Harris would be but a breath away from the Oval Office. Lacking that, she would be a major influence. She is opposed to fracking. The whole Democratic platform is sold out to the Greenies and committed to the Green New Deal, which we know is committed to killing fracking. To say that “Biden is erroneously targeted as anti-fracking” is really ridiculous. Let’s just admit Biden, Harris and the Democratic Party are strongly anti-fracking.

When they ban fracking, the impact on the nation, and particularly Washington County, will be devastating.

The decision is clearly up to all of us. Do we want a future with jobs and security? If so, support President Trump, who has steadfastly supported the energy industry.

Dave Ball is vice chairman of the Washington County Republican Party and a Peters Township councilman.