Pennsylvania voters should know that the natural gas industry Kamala Harris would like to dismantle generated $41.1 billion in just one year alone for their state, which is greater than the GDP of 46 countries.
That was one of the major takeaways of a recent study the Marcellus Shale Coalition commissioned that also shows the industry produced labor income in the amount of $12 billion for 2022, which translated into average annual wages of $97,482 for the more than 123,000 jobs the industry supports.
For the record, that is 113% higher than the median Pennsylvania wage.
But if Vice President Harris makes it back in the White House as president, expect the “Natural Gas Revolution” that’s transformed Pennsylvania and the country has a whole to collapse under radical “green” policies pushed by Harris and her activist allies.
Before her presidential campaign in imploded in 2020, Harris famously told CNN viewers “there’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.”
And she has the record to back it up. During her two terms as California Attorney General and her brief stint as a U.S. Senator, the San Francisco leftist has been a persistent zealot for the most extreme, anti-energy climate policies on offer.
As Attorney General, Harris successfully sued the Obama-Biden administration to block fracking off the Pacific Coast. As a U.S. Senator she co-sponsored the Green New Deal and backed similar initiatives aimed at stifling American energy. That’s the real Kamala Harris.
So, what would it mean for the Pennsylvania voters she’s now courting with her endless flip-flops on fracking—and for Americans across the country who rely on cheap, affordable energy—if she’s calling the shots in the White House next year?
A Marcellus Massacre
The Marcellus Shale Coalition, a Pittsburgh-based non-partisan group for natural gas producers and suppliers operating across the Marcellus Shale region, has some insight. The study points to “robust projections through 2050” for economic growth in Pennsylvania tied in with natural gas production, but that’s assuming the right mix of pro-energy policies are in place.
The Marcellus Shale is a rock formation containing rich deposits of oil and natural gas that cuts across much of Pennsylvania and parts of New York, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, and Virginia. Thanks to innovative drilling techniques these previously untapped resources are now within reach throughout the region. As David Callahan, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition explained in an interview, the process of fracking, otherwise known as hydraulic fracturing, is not exactly new. But the horizontal drilling techniques are.
“Fracking has become a word to describe the entire industry,” Callahan told Restoration News. “The practice dates back to the 1940s, and it has been used and refined throughout the years. It was the application of this practice along with angling the drill a bit to go horizontally to tap through the hard shale to release this sea of gas, and that’s what allowed the shale revolution to take place.”
Several left-leaning environmental activist groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council, which have endorsed Harris, are also all in with a ban on fracking. Apparently, these groups known enough not take her stated flip flops on the campaign trail seriously.
But what would a ban look like and what would it mean? Callahan has further insight.
“A ban doesn’t necessarily have to be an outright piece of legislation or a policy that says there will be no more gas development in America, or a Pennsylvania,” he said. “A ban can take many different forms. It could take the form of strangulating policies, policies that choke off development, and that make it uneconomical to carry out gas development.”
Callahan continued: “There are real dollars at stake, and I’m not talking about dollars for corporations, but dollars supporting our energy security, our national security, consumer savings, and environmental benefits as well.”
Self-described environmental activists have good cause to celebrate the natural gas revolution and the infrastructure that have made it possible.
Callahan goes into some detail.
“The responsible production, transportation, and use of natural gas has significantly lowered air pollutant emissions in Pennsylvania,” he said. “It has also proven to be an incredibly effective tool to reduce Co2 emissions. In fact, we’ve seen a reduction in Co2 emissions of 46%. That’s just amazing.”
Threat to National Security
There are national security implications that intersect with America’s ability to rely upon domestic supplies of oil and natural gas that cannot be separated the obvious economic benefits.
In 2001, the Department of Energy released a report exploring these topics and found that in the absence of America’s natural gas revolution, the U.S. would become more dependent upon unfriendly, and unstable sources of energy in the Middle East and Russia.
“Export of natural gas and crude oil provide the U.S. an important diplomatic tool and add further energy supply to the global market,” the report says. “This enhanced supply has the effect of reducing global energy costs and, in many situations, can help lift billions of people out of energy poverty.”
But these economic and national security gains would be lost almost immediately if the U.S. were to ban the use of hydraulic fracturing technology, the report warns. The Energy Department anticipated that under this scenario the “GDP would plummet by one trillion dollars” with the U.S. very likely sliding into a recession.
In the meantime, Pennsylvania consumers should that they are benefiting tremendously from policies that have enabled engineers to tap into the rich natural resources of the Marcellus Shale.
“Pennsylvania natural gas customers in every customer class, have received somewhere in the neighborhood of between $8 and $9 billion, that’s inflation adjusted dollars, in terms of wholesale gas cost savings on their utility bills between 2008 and present day. That’s money that stays in people’s pockets, whether they operate a business, whether it’s for their home, or whether it’s for a factory.”
The Institute for Energy Research (IER), a Washington D.C. nonprofit that supports free market energy prices, has the lowdown on how the U.S. became energy independent in 2019 for the first time since 1957 thanks largely to the hydraulic fracturing, horizontal drilling, and the abundant deposits available in the Marcellus Shale.
Looking ahead, Callahan has some recommendations for policymakers who might be committed to making the most of American energy.
“Number one is permitting reform,” he said. “We need permitting reform for pipeline projects, and we need permitting reform to allow LNG [liquified natural gas] export facility permits to continue and become unfrozen. We also need to take a hard look at our nation’s energy grid.”
Callahan also expressed concern about the slow pace of pipeline approvals. He sees to many being canceled or indefinitely postponed.
“We certainly need more pipelines to get gas out of this basin and into markets where it’s needed whether it’s across state lines, whether it’s up to New England, whether it’s across the Atlantic,” Callahan said., “It’s very clear that the average number of pipelines approved by the Biden administration at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is significantly lower than it was in the last three administrations.”
The problem with the pipeline approval process fits into a larger anti-energy Harris is working to obscure. The American Energy Alliance, a grassroots group that engages in energy and environmental policy lists 175 ways Harris, and other anti-energy figures in her party, have made it more difficult to produce oil and gas here at home.
