Opinion: Don’t believe the talking points — Pennsylvania natural gas can be a winner for Harris

Pennsylvania shale natural gas production, the second largest by state in America, has become an unexpectedly important issue in the 2024 presidential campaign.

Former President Trump and his Republican supporters are sounding the alarm in the pivotal swing state, falsely contending that his opponent, Kamala Harris, intends to ban fracking used in shale gas development if she is elected. Harris, for her part, recently reiterated her support for shale gas production , a position she has maintained since becoming Joe Biden’s vice presidential nominee in 2020.

Indeed, the U.S. Department of Energy under the Biden-Harris administration last week issued a new permit for the export of liquefied natural gas , ending a pause it had put in place earlier this year. This indicates to centrist Pennsylvania voters that Harris does not intend to reduce U.S. gas production. In fact, U.S. gas production has increased substantially under Biden-Harris, with consumer natural gas prices staying low. And projections from the U.S. Energy Information Agency find that both gas production and U.S. gas exports are expected to grow over the next several years.

But despite gaining national political attention, a crucial benefit of Pennsylvania gas has gone unreported — namely, that it has far lower methane and lifecycle greenhouse emissions than natural gas from Texas and other major producing states, according to a major independent study released last year.

As concerns about climate change impacts from methane emissions continue to grow, lower emissions should provide Pennsylvania gas a substantial market advantage over gas with higher methane content and allow Pennsylvania gas to more easily meet important new domestic and international methane standards. Thus, the issue is a win-win for the Harris campaign, both for those in her party concerned about the environment and for the swing-state voters who are focused on jobs and the local economy.

Last month, the European Union began promulgating regulations regarding the methane content of natural gas imports . This matters to the U.S. because Europe is the No.1 destination of U.S. natural gas exports , which the Biden-Harris administration has made a top priority so that Europe can continue to reduce its reliance on gas from Vladimir Putin’s Russia, which not only funds his war in Ukraine but also has much higher methane and lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions .

Domestically, the Biden-Harris administration has regulated methane emissions to reduce overall U.S. greenhouse gases — actions crucial to limiting near-term temperature increases that are driving expensive climate change impacts like heat waves, larger storms, wildfires and flooding. Major Pennsylvania natural gas companies have been at the vanguard of methane emissions reductions , with much lower emissions than gas companies producing in other regions.

Such progress on methane is absolutely crucial to overall climate protection , and the Biden-Harris administration has been the global leader in prioritizing methane reductions. In addition to domestic regulations, the administration created with our European allies the Global Methane Pledge, supported by more than 150 nations who have agreed to reduce overall methane emissions by 30 percent during this decade. And just last week, climate envoy John Podesta was in Beijing pressing the Chinese to cut their methane emissions as well.

In contrast, when he was president, Donald Trump undermined U.S. climate leadership, withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement and overturning dozens of major climate protections . Trump has vowed to undermine climate protections even more disastrously if he wins in November, repealing Biden-Harris new clean energy incentives “on day one” — incentives that are the source of billions of dollars of new annual investment and hundreds of thousands of new jobs.

Under Biden-Harris, Pennsylvania and U.S. natural gas production has increased substantially while consumer prices for gas have stayed low, even as the U.S. has enacted responsible emissions reductions of methane to protect our climate and public safety. This represents an economic and environmental sweet spot for Pennsylvania voters and others throughout swing states like Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Georgia.

And if her campaign emphasizes the lower emissions from Pennsylvania shale, nothing can be sweeter than natural gas for Kamala Harris.

Paul Bledsoe is a professorial lecture at American University Center for Environmental Policy. He served on the White House Climate Change Task Force under former President Bill Clinton.

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