Since Kamala Harris launched her presidential campaign in late July, fracking has taken on renewed political prominence, particularly given the vice president's wavering stances and the administration’s efforts to restrict drilling for oil and gas .
While the vice president and Democratic nominee has vowed not to ban the drilling technology, her stance on fracking, also known as hydraulic fracturing, has changed in recent years. Previously, Harris backed doing away with the technology altogether, while President Joe Biden ran for office aiming to stop new oil and gas drilling on federal lands by halting new leases.
So, what did the Biden-Harris administration actually end up doing ? Let’s take a look:
The 2020 campaign
Toward the end of his 2020 campaign for the White House, Biden and Harris repeatedly insisted their administration would not ban fracking. While an encouraging stance for the oil and gas industry, it appeared to be a more centrist take than what the running mates previously had.
During a July 2019 debate among the Democratic candidates for president, Biden was pressed on whether there would be “any place for fossil fuels, including coal and fracking,” under his administration.
“We would work it out,” Biden said . “We would make sure it’s eliminated and no more subsidies for either of those, either — any fossil fuel.”
Similarly, during a March 2020 debate, Biden said , “No more, no new fracking.”
However, those statements were made off-the-cuff. In his campaign platform, Biden took a less aggressive stance, namely that he would end new fracking on federal land, which only accounts for a small share of overall drilling in the country.
Before joining the ticket with Biden, Harris opted for a more restrictive approach, in line with other left-wing candidates such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who also supported a ban on the drilling technology.
"There's no question I'm in favor of banning fracking," Harris told CNN during her 2020 campaign.
“And starting with what we can do on Day One around public lands, right?” the then-senator said. “And then there has to be legislation, but, yes, and this is 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.”
Year One goals
Keeping with Biden’s campaign promises, the administration issued a 60-day suspension on new oil and gas leasing and drilling permits on federal lands soon after Biden entered office. Not long after, the president went a step further by ordering a moratorium on all new oil and gas leases for federal land and water areas.
At the time, Biden emphasized that the move was not an attempt to ban fracking because it did not affect existing leases.
The order, combined with other actions such as canceling the permit for constructing the Keystone XL Pipeline and rejoining the Paris Agreement, was evidence of the administration’s agenda to reduce nationwide emissions and reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
National and international roadblocks
However, the moratorium quickly faced a number of legal challenges as Republicans claimed Biden was overstepping his authority.
In June 2021, a Trump-appointed federal judge placed a preliminary injunction on the order. The administration appealed the injunction and over a year later saw the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacate the decision. However, just one day later, a second injunction was issued , blocking the pause in Louisiana, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia. These 13 states had filed the initial lawsuit against the pause.
The judge argued that federal law requires lease sales to be carried out by the Interior Department and pointed to the Mineral Leasing Act, which requires sales “where eligible lands are available” on at least a quarterly basis.
That same year, the administration also faced geopolitical hurdles in its efforts to reduce fracking. In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, sending oil gas prices through the roof. This sparked Biden to urge U.S. oil refiners and producers to increase their supply, as the country also looked to export 10 billion cubic feet of liquid natural gas per day to the European Union amid the war in Ukraine.
Inflation Reduction Act effects
In 2022, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes several requirements that the government offer new leases for oil and gas on federal lands over the next several years. These provisions were included in the bill primarily due to the efforts of Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV), who was then a registered Democrat.
Just weeks after Biden signed the IRA into law, the Interior Department scheduled three previously canceled offshore oil and gas lease sales and reinstated lease sales that had also been invalidated. While the three sales have been added to the calendar by the administration through 2029, it is the smallest number announced in history.
Meanwhile, by the end of his second year in office, data from the Bureau of Land Management revealed that Biden had approved more oil and gas drilling permits than former President Donald Trump had during the same time frame.
Despite this quick pace for permits, these are notably different from leases, which must first be obtained to explore for or produce oil or natural gas. After a deposit is located, leaseholders or lease operators can then apply for a permit to drill, meaning thousands of permits can be approved over time for already existing leases.
Regulatory restrictions
Meanwhile, the administration has appeared to restrict drilling and new oil and gas leases through regulation.
Most notably, in November, the Interior Department implemented higher royalty and rental rates as well as the minimum bid requirement for lease sales. Minimum bids were raised to $10 per acre, up from the historical $2 per acre that had been in place since 1987. The minimum royalty rate, which is the amount paid for what is produced under the lease, was raised from 12.5% to 16.67%.
The Environmental Protection Agency has also issued several controversial rules meant to crack down on toxic metal, mercury, and methane emissions from the oil and gas industry.
Several states and industry groups have challenged these rules, claiming the regulations would force power plants running on fossil fuels to close. The Supreme Court refused to hear the challenges last week.
A new administration could reverse many of these rules. But that would be expected to take some time.
New promises
With Trump vowing to “drill, baby, drill,” it remains unclear if Harris's administration would continue to limit drilling through fewer lease sales and regulatory restrictions. However, she has stood firm that fracking isn’t going anywhere.
During the September presidential debate, Harris insisted that her current position does not involve a ban.
“Let’s talk about fracking because I made that very clear in 2020 I will not ban fracking. I have not banned fracking as vice president of the United States, and in fact, I was the tiebreaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which opened new leases for fracking,” Harris said while failing to mention why the lease sales were included in the IRA.
The vice president went on to say that under her presidency, she would look to invest in “diverse sources of energy so we reduce our reliance on foreign oil.”
“We have had the largest increase in domestic oil production in history because of an approach that recognizes we cannot over-rely on foreign oil,” Harris said.
As the election draws nearer, Harris has stood by this position — an attempt to reach key voters in battleground states such as Pennsylvania that heavily rely on drilling.
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The Keystone State is home to the largest source of shale natural gas in the country, the Marcellus Formation. This formation accounts for around 21% of natural gas production in the U.S., with fracking supporting around 123,000 jobs in the state.
Given fracking’s history of boosting local and state economies, and the heavy criticism from environmentalists regarding air and water pollution risks, the drilling technology is expected to remain top of mind for voters as the nation approaches Nov. 5.
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