After years of positioning herself as a climate crusader and ardent opponent of fracking, Kamala Harris has avoided mention of such credentials in this must-win state for Democrats, where natural gas drives the economy, culture and everyday conversation.
Her new approach is proving a tough sell.
Many of the swing voters here whose livelihoods rise and fall with the fortunes of the fossil energy industry have not forgotten the last time Harris ran for president, when she called for a ban on fracking — extracting natural gas by creating cracks in the earth’s bedrock. It is a position she now disavows. Even the boom in oil and gas production under the Biden-Harris administration is failing to assuage anxieties that the halcyon days of fracking for natural gas here would dim if Harris wins the White House.
There were 121,000 Pennsylvanians working in jobs connected to fracking in 2022, according to an industry-funded study by FTI Consulting, with an average salary of more than $97,000. It generated $3.2 billion in state and local tax revenue, and royalty payments to landowners exceeded $6 billion.
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