Fracking takes center stage in candidates' pitches to Pennsylvania

Editor’s note: This is part of an occasional series examining where presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump stand on the biggest issues. Today’s segment focuses on fracking.

With the advent of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in Pennsylvania, natural gas production has become the Goliath of the state’s energy sector — and a political football for Democrats and Republicans.

Pennsylvania has the second-largest natural gas reserves of any state, trailing only Texas. The commonwealth held more than 106 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves as of 2022, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Last year, Pennsylvania produced more than 7.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, near its 2021 record.

American natural gas first was discovered in Murrysville when Michael and Obediah Haymaker drilled for oil in 1878 but found gas instead. Westmoreland County became the cradle of the natural gas industry in the early 20th century.

That Haymaker well provided natural gas to Pittsburgh about 14 miles away, where it powered street lamps.

After the local natural gas industry went bust by the 1920s, it saw a massive rebound about 90 years later with the fracking boom of the 2010s. Local and out-of-state energy companies started drilling horizontally deep underground across Southwestern Pennsylvania to access Marcellus shale deposits, which they then fractured to release the natural gas trapped inside.

Pennsylvania produced more than a half-trillion cubic feet of natural gas in 2010. That amount kept growing for years. In 2021, the state produced an unparalleled 7.6 trillion cubic feet of gas.

While Pennsylvania’s extraction of natural gas stretches back nearly 150 years, only over the past decade has it become a politically fraught issue, earning the admiration and ire of Pennsylvanians.

Energy companies and building trades unions boosted the drilling and the jobs it created, while environmental groups criticized the practice for its effects on water quality and the greenhouse gasses it releases.

Many Republicans and some union-backing Democrats supported fracking throughout the state. Progressive Democrats were more wary and highlighted fracking’s effect on pollution and climate change.

Those battle lines have spilled into the 2024 campaign, where candidates have changed stances and lobbed accusations.

Where do Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and former President and Republican nominee Donald Trump stand?

Harris

In 2019, when Harris was running for president in the primary, she called for a nationwide fracking ban.

“There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking,” Harris said during a CNN town hall in October 2019.

She abandoned that stance after joining Joe Biden’s ticket in 2020, but the topic had not attracted much attention again until she became the Democratic presidential nominee.

Shortly after Biden endorsed Harris in July to replace him on the ticket, the Harris campaign sought to clarify her position, saying Harris doesn’t support a ban on fracking.

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In August, Harris explained to CNN her stance on fracking changed over the years because of her experience as vice president.

“What I have seen is that we can grow, and we can increase a clean energy economy, without banning fracking,” she said.

Pennsylvania has produced record levels of natural gas during the past three years of the Biden-Harris administration. After hitting its high of 7.6 trillion cubic feet of gas in 2021, the state hovered above 7.5 trillion cubic feet for the next two years. This year is on pace to reach a similar output, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data.

Harris told a group of energy industry executives in September that she understands natural gas prices will rise if fracking is banned and reiterated her support of fracking, according to Reuters.

She has vowed to continue the strategy of the Biden-Harris administration, which instituted regulations on greenhouse gas emissions while also allowing fracking on public lands.

Biden vowed to ban fracking on federal lands during his 2020 campaign but has allowed thousands of drilling permits to go through when the Inflation Reduction Act was passed. Natural gas companies also have benefited from investments in heavy industry made by the Inflation Reduction Act.

Harris cast the tiebreaking vote to get the Inflation Reduction Act through the Senate.

She has been endorsed by many labor unions that work in the natural gas industry, including the Pennsylvania State Building and Construction Trades Council as well as the Pennsylvania District Council of the Laborers International Union of North America, which spread its endorsements in a bipartisan manner this cycle.

The Laborers endorsed 60 Pennsylvania candidates for this year’s general election: 28 Republicans and 42 Democrats. The national Laborers union — which represents half a million members — also endorsed Harris. It said “she has been a trusted partner in bringing jobs back to the U.S. by reviving our manufacturing base” and “helped transform renewable energy jobs into family-supporting union jobs.”

Environmental groups have been critical of fracking, but that isn’t holding back their support for Harris. The Sierra Club, one of the nation’s largest environmental groups, endorsed Harris.

Katie Blume, the political and legislative director of Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania, told NBC News last week she is backing Harris, even while calling for more regulations on fracking in Pennsylvania. Blume praised the Biden-Harris administration for passing historic climate legislation and having a focus on growing renewable energy projects.

Trump

The former president has made fracking a central part of his pitch to Pennsylvania voters.

During a Johnstown rally, Trump invited fracking-related business owners and some workers onstage to sell his support for the industry. Among them was Mark Caskey, who founded Cecil-based Steel Nation, a company that constructs steel buildings for oil and gas installations.

Trump has repeated throughout his rallies and speeches that Harris’ changing stance on fracking shouldn’t be trusted and that he is more supportive of the industry.

“She’s vowed repeatedly to ban fracking,” Trump said at that Aug. 30 rally in Johnstown. “The people of Pennsylvania are smart. They will not fall for it. If you do not have fracking, you do not have a commonwealth.”

John Stewart, vice president of Cameron Energy Co., told NBC News his business was in better shape under Trump. Cameron Energy Co. operates about 1,800 natural gas wells in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

“We could actually plan a budget and know with some predictability that we would be able to meet it,” Stewart said last week. “The last several years have been incredibly unpredictable. Inflation is just killing us.”

Trump has vowed to “unleash” fracking and other domestic energy production, implying production could be higher.

Under Trump’s term from 2017-20, natural gas production in Pennsylvania increased rapidly but never reached the heights as during the Biden-Harris administration.

Natural gas production in Pennsylvania reached 5.4 trillion cubic feet in 2017 and jumped to 7.1 trillion cubic feet in 2020, Trump’s last year in office. Pandemic closures in 2020 did not affect the fracking industry’s output.

But the Trump administration still is bullish that it can increase gas production beyond highs of the past few years.

Trump said he would create tax cuts for the fracking industry, streamline the permitting process and remove certain regulations. He also has criticized Biden’s move to pause liquid natural gas export permits. Trump said he would immediately undo the pause if elected.

The temporary freeze, which began in January, is aimed at pending applications to export liquid natural gas to countries that lack a free trade agreement with the U.S. The Department of Energy has said it expects the pause to end in March, according to Politico.

“I will approve the export terminals on my very first day back,” Trump said at a January rally in Las Vegas.

Harris has not disclosed her stance on the pause.

Industry boosters have applauded Trump’s pledge to undo the temporary halt but also have expressed apprehension at Trump’s call for a 10% to 20% broad-based tariff and what impact it could have.

“I expect he’ll pick up where he left off if he’s reelected,” Dan Eberhart, CEO of Denver-based oilfield services company Canary, told Politico in March.

“The flip side of that is that he tends to favor a protectionist trade policy and is likely to impose tariffs if he thinks the U.S. is getting a raw deal,” Eberhart said. “That’s going to be a positive selling point for some, but there is always the risk that tariffs could turn into a trade war.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated in several places the amount of natural gas produced in Pennsylvania.