Fracking Ban Rhetoric Might Appeal to Woke Left But It's A Loser For America

With the 2020 presidential election around the corner, Democrat candidates are laying out what they hope is a winning platform on energy. Climate change is playing a leading role with both MSNBC and CNN hosting major climate forums.

In their zeal to cater to the radical wing of the party’s base, many candidates – Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris among them – are calling for a total ban on the use of hydraulic fracturing for oil and natural gas production on public and private lands.

While a fracking ban might win some votes among environmental activists, it’s a guaranteed loser for America’s economy, energy security – and for efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Climate policies that reject the benefits of natural gas will do more harm than good

Sure, casting the oil and gas industry in the role of climate villain resonates with the party’s woke activists. What it won’t do is reduce carbon emissions.

Natural gas demand continues to grow faster than any other generation source as utilities transition away from coal and nuclear power to gas-fired generating facilities. Natural gas demand has increased by 14 billion cubic feet per day since 2017 and is expected to jump 6% this year alone

In the nation’s largest electricity region, PJM, natural gas in 2020 is forecast to fuel 39% of power generation – up from 31% in 2018. The increase will make gas PJM’s single biggest fuel source, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Banning the innovative process responsible for delivering the current energy bonanza will result in higher prices and push electric utilities back toward coal, which was the cheap and abundant fuel of choice before the shale boom pushed gas prices to record lows.

America’s abundant oil and gas resources have been a boom to the economy. It’s fair to credit the bustle of activity that began around 2009 on state and privately-owned lands in the tight-shale rocks of North Dakota and Texas for keeping the country from sliding into a full-blown depression under the previous administration.

Hydraulic fracking with the addition of the end of the ban on oil exports are responsible for pushing net energy imports last year to the lowest level since 1963, with fossil fuel supplying four-fifths of all domestic energy consumption.

In 2020, U.S. producers are expected to export an additional 3 billion cubic feet per day of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to over 30 foreign markets.

Fracking is responsible for unlocking valuable resources on land in areas that had previously been thought dry holes, changing a trend in the sector of hunting for resources in increasingly remote areas, including the deepwater and Arctic.

The end result is an economic boom that has delivered affordable energy, resurrected the manufacturing sector, spurred job creation, and provided American leaders with a source of soft power on the global stage.

The alternative is an America once again dependent on foreign sources for its energy security. And energy security is national security.

Unless Democrats are going to follow through on their promise to outlaw the internal combustion engine as well, America’s drivers will have to turn to Canada for its oil sands, to Saudi Arabia, to Venezuela, to Iran, and to Russia – as New England did last winter because of opposition by New York’s woke politicians to American gas crossing their borders.

A nationwide ban on fracking would cause domestic oil production to plummet more than 20%, according to a recent report from Rapidan Energy Group.

As a substitute for natural gas, Democrats are calling for an increase in renewable energy, by which they mean more wind and solar. Renewable energy is good but it has its limitations. The reality is that we will need more renewables and natural gas to meet growing world demand for electricity.

Our digital lifestyles require more energy every year, not less. And the projected population growth in Asia means there will be more than a billion more people who need access to affordable energy to avoid a life of poverty. Renewables alone cannot meet the challenge.

Record natural gas production has also not slowed growth in the renewables sector. Wind power is set to increase by 6% this year, and by 14% in 2020, according to the EIA. In April, monthly electricity generation from renewables passed coal-fired generation for the first time.

Carbon emissions from natural gas are half of those from coal, which has driven the transition to lower-carbon energy in the electricity sector. Since 2010, fuel switching from coal to natural gas has avoided some 500 million tons of carbon emissions in the United States.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance recently recognized the role natural gas has played in slashing carbon emissions in the power sector by 25% since 2008. Natural gas, BNEF reported “has done more to curb U.S. carbon emissions in the past decade than any other single factor, including new renewable build.”

As Democrats push to ban fracking and the energy dominance it has delivered, we should consider the words of Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, who said such a move would have “major implications” for our economy, not only stifling job growth but undermining our energy security, too.

America’s natural gas industry employs more than 625,000 Americans, is driving reductions in carbon emissions, providing a counterweight to Russia and Iran for our allies and trading partners. Call it a bridge fuel if you want, but it’s a bridge to an energy future that as of yet does not exist. We should be encouraging more natural gas production, not less.