President Donald Trump on Saturday announced the signing of an executive order to protect both the fracking and oil and gas industries following former Vice President Joe Biden’s pledge to “transition from the oil industry.”
“Just signed an order to protect fracking and the oil and gas industry,” the president wrote on Twitter. “This means JOBS, low energy bills, and continued AMERICAN ENERGY INDEPENDENCE! Sleepy Joe would BAN fracking and destroy American energy jobs! He has NO clue!!”
A White House fact sheet of the order — titled “President Donald J. Trump Is Supporting Hydraulic Fracturing and Other Technologies to Protect Our Jobs, Economic Opportunity, and National Security” — reads that the president will undertake the following actions to protect the fracking and oil and gas industries:
- Due to public calls to ban or restrict such technologies, the President has directed his Administration to assess the potential effects of such bans or restrictions on American citizens.
- The Administration will assess the potential consequences of fracking bans – such as job losses – on Americans who are directly or indirectly benefiting from the energy industry and other industries, including mining for sand and other minerals.
- The President wants to protect these jobs and help out-of-work Americans who are seeking good jobs.
- No responsible public official should sacrifice vast numbers of American jobs and livelihoods to appease domestic radicals and curry favor with foreign powers.
Biden made the pledge to “transition” from the oil industry during the final presidential debate in Nashville, Tennessee.
A transcript of Biden and Trump’s exchange on the matter is as follows:
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Would you close down the oil industry?
FORMER VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I would transition from the oil industry, yes.
TRUMP: Oh, that’s a big statement.
BIDEN: It is a big statement.
KRISTEN WELKER: Why would you do that?
BIDEN: Because the oil industry pollutes. It has to be replaced by renewable energy over time. And I’d stop giving federal subsidies to the oil industry. He won’t give federal subsidies to solar and wind. Why are we giving it to the oil industry?
TRUMP: We actually do give it to solar and wind. And that’s maybe the biggest statement, in terms of business, because basically what he’s saying is he’s going to destroy the oil industry. Will you remember that, Texas? Will you remember that, Pennsylvania? Oklahoma? Ohio?
During the second Democrat Party presidential primary debate in July, Biden was asked whether there would be “any place for fossil fuels, including coal and fracking, in a Biden administration,” to which he answered: “No, we would — we would work it out. We would make sure it’s eliminated and no more subsidies for either one of those, either — any fossil fuel.” In addition, Biden went as far as to promise there would be “no new fracking” during the final Democrat presidential primary debate.
Despite his opposition to fracking being on the record, Biden attempted to claim during the final presidential debate that he “never said I oppose fracking.”
Since Biden’s pledge to “transition” away from oil, President Trump has repeatedly warned supporters in battleground states such as Pennsylvania that his opponent’s energy plan would be an “economic death sentence.”
“He’s going to ban fracking and deliver an economic death sentence for Pennsylvania, and many other places in our country,” the president said at a recent campaign rally in Lititz, Pennsylvania. “He will eradicate your energy and send Pennsylvania into a crippling depression.”
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