In March, Joe Biden infamously said in a DNC debate, “No new fracking.” Observers thought this meant . . . well, no new fracking. This month, as his poll numbers took a nosedive, Biden claims that he will not ban fracking.
This claim, however, is absurd given his embrace of the Green New Deal. As is stated on his campaign website, under the heading, “The Biden Plan for a Clean Energy Revolution and Environmental Justice.” I kid you not, that’s the page heading (archive link).
Biden believes the Green New Deal is a crucial framework for meeting the climate challenges we face. It powerfully captures two basic truths, which are at the core of his plan: (1) the United States urgently needs to embrace greater ambition on an epic scale to meet the scope of this challenge, and (2) our environment and our economy are completely and totally connected.
Neither the Green New Deal nor “environmental justice,” of course, include fracking. This is why fervent Green New Dealers like Bernie Sanders insist on a ban on fracking, including joining NY Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in introducing a bill to do just that.
Biden also stated last year that coal and fracking would be “eliminated” if he wins. He just doesn’t want “flyover” voters to fully comprehend this before the election.
He’s not alone, his running-mate, Kamala Harris has also reversed herself on fracking (for now, anyway).
The Washington Free Beacon reports:
Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Sunday reversed her support for a ban on fracking, a policy position she held through her failed 2020 presidential campaign.Harris said on CNN’s State of the Union that she would support her running mate Joe Biden’s recent commitment to not ban fracking, saying that it provides “good-paying jobs in places like Pennsylvania.”The candidate also said a Biden-Harris administration would “put a significant investment in the good-paying union jobs that we can create around clean energy,” calling any decision between job creation and environmental protection a “false choice.”Harris endorsed a fracking ban during her 2020 run, stressing its dangers to the environment, and was an early cosponsor of the Green New Deal. As California’s attorney general, she sued the Obama administration for permitting fracking off the Pacific Coast.
In the coming months, we’ll be seeing a lot more of Biden-Harris flip-flopping, pandering to various voters, and outright lying about their true positions on a range of issues from “ending our gun violence epidemic” to “setting up regional food systems” throughout rural America.
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