Biden’s fuzziness on natural gas

 

Energy remains an issue in this year’s presidential campaign. Whether it’s President Trump’s efforts to reopen drilling on some national lands or Joe Biden’s one-time pledge to ban fracking.

Axios.com’s Amy Harder reported Thursday the natural gas issue is one that is plaguing Biden.

Joe Biden has the most aggressive climate-change plan in presidential election history, but he continues to evade the dicey topic of natural gas.

Why it matters: Natural gas, mostly derived from the controversial extraction process called fracking, is filling an increasingly large role in America’s energy system. It’s cleaner than oil and coal but is still a fossil fuel with heat-trapping emissions.

Driving the news: This week in Pennsylvania, a battleground state with a big natural gas industry, Biden repeatedly said he is not going to ban fracking “no matter how many times Donald Trump lies about me.”

  • Biden has previously made comments that clearly indicate he wanted to ban fracking. But he made them last year during the primary season and his campaign quickly walked them back.

The intrigue: The Biden campaign has largely focused on supporting renewables instead of penalizing fossil fuels, a subtle but essential distinction likely made to not alienate voters in natural-gas heavy swing states including Pennsylvania and Ohio.

  • That positioning persists despite increased pressure from youth activist groups, chiefly the Sunrise Movement, to target oil, natural gas and coal more directly.
  • “I thought they could have gone further on fossil fuels,” said Varshini Prakash, co-founder of the Sunrise Movement and a participant on a task force that gave recommendations to the campaign. “It’s something I pushed for, but ultimately that didn’t happen.”
  • Prakash said she couldn’t remember what reason the campaign gave for that position. “I think they’re making a political calculus.”
  • Since the general election kicked off, Biden doesn’t talk much about how he would limit oil and natural gas. “Every time you talk about it, you piss someone off,” said one person close to the campaign who spoke candidly only on the condition of anonymity.

Where it stands: The former VP pledged to ban new leasing of oil and gas on federal lands, for which the impact is more symbolic than substantive. Most production is on private or state lands.

  • Biden’s climate plan also calls for a zero-carbon electricity system in the next 15 years and the entire economy by 2050.
  • Such goals are in line with what scientists say is needed to adequately address climate change on a global level. But they’re herculean tasks because the American economy, like the world, is heavily dependent on oil, natural gas and coal.
  • Natural gas is powering almost 50% of the U.S. electricity system as of late July, up almost 10% from last year. It was less than a quarter a decade ago.

Flashback: Democrats used to widely consider natural gas environmentally friendly energy.

  • It burns 50% fewer C02 emissions than coal and has very little particulate pollution compared to oil and coal.
  • But over the last several years, scientists and environmentalists have raised concerns about methane, gas’s primary component, and potent greenhouse gas. Methane leaks when companies produce and transport the fuel.

Source: Axios.com