Fracking could decide the election in Pennsylvania — and nationwide

Pennsylvania may be the deciding state in the 2024 election. And new polling from my organization makes clear energy may be the deciding issue for Pennsylvania voters.

Energy matters more to Pennsylvania — where polling shows Donald Trump and Kamala Harris tied — than almost any other state. 

We’re the second-largest producer of natural gas, with 2022 production totaling a staggering 7.5 trillion cubic feet. 

Likewise, Pennsylvania is the No. 1 state for exporting electricity — powering our neighbors like New York.

The biggest reason we’re able to produce so much is because of hydraulic fracturing, best known as fracking. Revolutionary advances in energy exploration have made it possible for Pennsylvania to not only produce enough natural gas to keep energy costs low in our homes and businesses but have plenty left over to ship around the world.

No surprise, Keystone State voters want candidates who’ll defend our way of life and unleash our tremendous energy resources. 

We don’t want candidates who attack the energy that underpins our economy and is essential to our future.

It’s no surprise then to see Kamala Harris flip-flop on fracking. 

Five years ago, before she was vice president, Harris unequivocally stated she wanted to ban fracking. For Pennsylvania, few things could be more harmful or less appealing in a potential president. 

So fast forward to today, and the now-nominee says she doesn’t support a fracking ban.

But does she really mean it? 

In recent days, her campaign has walked back her newfound support of fracking, with a top aide declaring, “She is not promoting expansion.”

And as a Biden-Harris administration leader, she’s backed a slew of policies that’ve undermined natural-gas production and risk driving the industry into the ground. 

We’re talking painful one-size-fits-all mandates, a ban on liquified-natural-gas exports and massive taxpayer subsidies to unreliable “green” energy sources, which unfairly boost them at the expense of fracking.

Pennsylvania voters are starting to realize this truth, as my organization’s polling shows. 

Nearly eight in 10 voters believe natural-gas drilling is important to the state’s economy. This puts Harris between a rock and a hard place — defending the administration’s policies or delivering for Pennsylvania voters.

The last thing our state needs is more of the same from the vice president. 

Only 23% of voters here support her administration’s controversial LNG-export ban. 

This policy is so unpopular that even our state’s two Democratic senators and Democratic governor have spoken out against it — but Harris has fully embraced it.

Pennsylvanians are perfectly clear about what policies they want. Nearly three-quarters of voters want to build more natural-gas infrastructure, especially pipelines. 

Yet as vice president, Harris is part of an administration that’s unilaterally blocked the development of pipelines.

These swing staters likewise want to see a reduction of excessive red tape, which 57% say prevents energy production without helping the environment. 

Yet the Biden-Harris administration has dramatically expanded the regulatory state and slowed energy development in the United States.

And Pennsylvanians have a strong desire for the affordable energy fracking helps deliver. Pennsylvanians, by overwhelming 60-point margins, say their household bills have increased, and they’re concerned about the future availability of reasonably priced energy.

More than two-thirds say ensuring affordable energy should be a higher priority for the federal government than “combating climate change.”

In fact, 57% of our state’s voters wouldn’t be willing to spend even $100 of their own money in the name of fighting climate change. That makes sense: Throughout the last four years, my fellow residents have consistently said rising costs are their top concern.

People want what Pennsylvania can uniquely provide: abundant and affordable energy, the kind that creates jobs, keeps the lights on and leads to better lives for all. 

That widespread desire may very well determine who wins Pennsylvania — and for that matter, the White House itself.

Andrew J. Lewis is president and CEO of the Commonwealth Foundation, Pennsylvania’s free-market think tank.

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