CNN anchor Poppy Harlow said on Friday that it was “clear” there would be fewer fracking jobs under a Biden administration than under a second term for President Donald Trump.
Harlow asked, “Senator, let me ask you about fracking. It’s a big issue for your state, a job creator for your state. It’s not totally clear where Joe Biden stands on fracking. One thing that is clear is there would be fewer fracking jobs under a Biden administration than under another a Trump administration. You said in 2012 about fracking it’s a lot of jobs, it’s a lot of prosperity, though you did note the environmental and health concerns. But you know how many jobs are tied to it in Ohio. I’m wondering if you’re concerned some of your constituents would lose their jobs under a Biden administration?”
Brown said, “I said that in 2012 where there were a lot more fracking jobs. We’ve seen what the companies do, come in eastern Ohio, not densely populated, they hire many, many people from Oklahoma and Texas. When I went out to the fields, you saw mostly license plates from out of state. They work for that while, and then they’re gone, and they leave behind an incomplete infrastructure, shall we say. Widened roads that the state didn’t tax at the wellhead the way they should have. So state and local governments could get revenues to build what they needed to build. And there aren’t that many jobs in fracking or, unfortunately, even in coal in Ohio. It’s a different place than a decade ago. This president has done nothing. He cares nothing about climate change. He ignores it, doesn’t buy the science and then done nothing about the jobs in energy in eastern Ohio. So things are worse than they were. No help to this president. We’ve obviously got to be more serious about climate issues.”
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