Susan Walsh/AP Photo
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris departs after speaking at a community rally in Philadelphia, October 27, 2024.
Residents of Washington County in southwestern Pennsylvania have seen the costs and benefits of hydraulic fracturing, colloquially known as “fracking.” It’s the most heavily fracked county in Pennsylvania, which is itself the second-largest natural gas–producing state, just behind Texas.
But Lois Bower-Bjornson, the southwestern Pennsylvania field organizer for Clean Air Council and resident of Washington County, says that Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare cancer, has ravaged the area. A few of her friends and acquaintances have been diagnosed with cancer: Some have died; others have had limbs amputated. “Something’s wrong here,” she says.
In a 2023 study, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the University of Pittsburgh found that children living within a half-mile of fracking wells were at higher risk for developing lymphoma than children five miles away. However, those researchers didn’t find links between the drilling into shale rock formations and any of the other childhood cancers. A Muhlenberg College 2024 survey found that 67 percent of Pennsylvanians saw fracking as a health risk, while 86 percent also stated they saw the industry as important to the state’s economy.
Fracking is a key industry in a crucial swing state. According to a 2023 economic impact report published by the Marcellus Shale Coalition, a natural gas industry group, the Pennsylvania natural gas sector produced $41 billion in economic activity and supported 123,000 jobs.
When it comes to the economy, former President Donald Trump has an edge over Vice President Kamala Harris among Pennsylvanians and a wider margin on fracking. Both appear to believe that being pro-fracking is one way to prove to voters they’re better for the economy. The national news media has landed on fracking as a key issue. But fracking isn’t going to decide the election in the Keystone State.
Many Pennsylvanians acknowledge that the natural gas industry is going to remain in their state after the election.
In just about every rally as well as in the single presidential debate, both Trump’s and Harris’s support for fracking has figured strongly in their appeals to voters. In her October 23 CNN town hall in suburban Delaware County outside Philadelphia, Harris said, “I know we can invest in a clean-energy economy and still not ban fracking.”
“We’re knocking on hundreds of thousands of doors across the state this year talking to voters. It is not an issue that’s coming up. The environment is an issue that matters to folks. The economy, of course,” Molly Parzen, the executive director of Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania, says. “I think this narrative that fracking is going to be the issue that voters are casting their ballots on has been blown out of proportion.”
The Trump campaign has attacked Harris’s statements in the 2019 Democratic presidential primary that she would ban fracking. This time around, in her pursuit of working-class voters, Harris has been adamant that she has no plans to pursue a ban.
Fracking is contentious for many Pennsylvanians. An Axis Research study published in February found that 68 percent of Pennsylvania voters, both Democrats and Republicans, support increased investment in natural gas production. However, a survey conducted by Ohio River Valley Institute in early October found that 9 in 10 Pennsylvanians support stricter regulations on the industry; 42 percent support a total ban.
Many Pennsylvanians acknowledge that the natural gas industry is going to remain in their state after the election. Despite Trump’s assertions about Harris, they know there’s very little the president can do to stop it. “Most of our fracking in this state is on private lands,” says Russell Johns, chair of earth and mineral sciences at Pennsylvania State University. “I don’t think Harris can stop that, so it’s not going to impact us much.”
The president can only ban wells on public lands. Since state lawmakers would have to devise any new fracking regulations, most Pennsylvania voters won’t be swayed by either national candidate’s position on this issue. “Trump supporters are gonna be Trump supporters no matter what. And if they’re swayed [to vote differently] it’s not gonna be on this issue,” Bower-Bjornson says. Like many Harris supporters in the state, she’s not tempted to vote for Trump because Harris now supports the industry. “I will never vote for someone that says, ‘Drill, baby, drill,’” she says, referring to Trump.
Despite her current stance on fracking, Harris is the pro-climate candidate, while Trump wallows in climate denial. Even so, Harris is fighting an uphill battle to win over voters on her economic-policy goals. If she is going to prevail in November, Harris must convince Pennsylvania voters she is the better candidate on the economic issues like inflation and job creation—a victory here won’t hinge on her position on fracking.
