GOP rep unveils bill to protect fracking from future presidential crackdowns

Republican Rep. August Pfluger introduced a new bill Friday that would prevent the president from banning fracking nationally without the consent of Congress.

Pfluger’s “Protecting American Energy Production Act” would explicitly require an act of Congress to impose a fracking moratorium and prevent the president from doing so directly. Several Democrats have called for a de facto or de jure fracking moratorium, including Vice President Kamala Harris as she ran for the presidency in the 2020 election cycle.

“It is the sense of Congress that States should maintain primacy for the regulation of hydraulic fracturing for oil and natural gas production on State and private lands,” the bill reads. “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the President may not declare a moratorium on the use of hydraulic fracturing unless such moratorium is authorized by an Act of Congress.”

Protecting American Energy … by Nick Pope

Some blue states — including New York and California — have passed legislation or taken other action to crack down hard on fracking. A number of well-funded environmentalist organizations have also advocated for a fracking ban for years.

“The Biden Administration has spent the last four years attacking the American energy industry, most recently attempting to shut it down by banning almost all new U.S. offshore drilling projects,” Pfluger said in a statement. “It will be up to Republicans and President Trump to reestablish American energy independence and dominance in the 119th Congress. This is why my first piece of legislation in the 119th Congress will protect the American energy industry and consumers from the federal government.”

More broadly, President Joe Biden took a number of actions to reduce fossil fuel production over the course of his one term in office. Some of his key policy decisions include banning new oil and gas leasing across 625 million acres of federally-controlled waters, a failed 2021 attempt to bar new oil and gas leasing on federal lands and freezing new export permits for liquefied natural gas for nearly a year.

By contrast, President-elect Donald Trump campaigned aggressively on unleashing U.S. fossil fuel production, including fracking, on his way back to the White House.

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