Pennsylvania is seriously in play.
Yes, it is my home state and I live here. But the repeated presence of former President Trump — not only is he returning to Butler, the site of his almost-assassination, in the energy-rich west.
On Wednesday he will be returning to the traditionally Republican stronghold of Central Pennsylvania, in this case Harrisburg. And yes, while the city itself has Democrat streaks, the surrounding rural and suburban counties have forever and a day been red. Sometimes vibrantly so.
And the trick always for a statewide Republican candidate is to maximize the GOP turnout in Central Pennsylvania. Combine Central Pennsylvania and its south to north up-the-middle geography to Northeast and Northwest counties and you have what is known in state politics as the “T.” The “T” is the counterweight to Democrat-run Philadelphia in the east and Democrat-run Pittsburgh in the West. Importantly, add in the Southwestern portion of the state outside Pittsburgh and the Harris problem comes clear.
Take this recent headline from Fox News:
VP Harris faces backlash in crucial swing state after her ‘disastrous’ anti-fracking position resurfaces
The key swing state of Pennsylvania is the second-largest natural gas producing state in the country
The story reports:
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris is facing renewed criticism for her past support of banning fracking, which she boldly proclaimed while running for president in 2019, particularly from critics pointing out the popularity of fracking in Rust Belt states like Pennsylvania.
“There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking,” Harris said during a 2019 town hall on CNN as a presidential candidate.
“And starting with what we can do on day one around public lands, right? And then there has to be legislation, but, yes, that’s’ something I’ve taken on in California. I have a history of working on this issue and to your point we have to just acknowledge that the residual impact of fracking is enormous in terms of the health and safety of communities.”
In a statement to Fox News Digital, National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Mike Marinella, said, “Kamala Harris is the most far left progressive presidential nominee in history, and extreme Democrats in the Rust Belt now own every single policy she supports.”
“A fracking ban would be disastrous for workers and families, and extreme Democrats’ mission to force Biden to step aside and replace him with San Francisco radical Kamala Harris shows exactly how out of touch they are with their voters.”
…”Fracking supports tens of thousands of jobs in swing states like Pennsylvania,” Power The Future founder and Executive Director Daniel Turner posted on X. “There’s no question that energy is on the ballot in November.”
Oops!
Now, of a sudden, there’s this headline from the Hill:
Harris does not support fracking ban: Campaign official
This gem of a story reports:
Vice President Kamala Harris will not seek to ban fracking if she’s elected president, an official with her campaign told The Hill on Friday.
Harris’s position not to support a ban on fracking differs from where she stood when she was running for president last cycle.
Hmmm.
Let’s be blunt.
Ideologically Vice President Harris is now and always has been opposed to fracking. Time after time she is recorded as being out there on the issue. It is a gold standard issue to the far left.
Suddenly, on the verge of being nominated for president, Harris now realizes that her fracking ban could in fact cause her to lose Pennsylvania.
Not all that long ago — in 2022 to be exact — there was this report from the U.S. Energy Department:
Pennsylvania had 273,364 energy workers statewide in 2022, representing 3.4% of all U.S. energy jobs. Of these energy jobs, 21,580 were in electric power generation; 48,405 in fuels; 51,437 in transmission, distribution, and storage; 69,990 in energy efficiency; and 81,952 in motor vehicles. From 2021 to 2022, energy jobs in the state increased 15,162 jobs, or 5.9% (Figure PA-1). The energy sector in Pennsylvania represented 4.6% of total state employment.
And the message from Kamala Harris to all these Pennsylvanians: She wants to ban — outright ban — one of the key industries — fracking — in the Pennsylvania economy. They would be out of a job. A well-paying job at that.
Is it any wonder that she suddenly reverses course?
But has she? Has she really?
Of course not. Kamala Harris is a far leftist’s far leftist. She is ideologically there. Out of California — where her fracking stance and energy views would be ignored — now that she needs Pennsylvania she suddenly changes course.
All of which is to say Harris is, at bottom, a far left radical who will change with the political wind to win an election. But anyone who believes that once elected a Harris Administration U.S. Department of Energy would not revert to her frack-hating original position?
There’s a bridge in Brooklyn she will want to sell you.
The post Harris’s Fracking Blunder appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.
