Published: May 8, 2024 |

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The Biden administration’s pause on natural gas exports is putting the president in a tricky political spot in Pennsylvania, one of the key swing states in November.

Pennsylvania has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the last decade’s natural gas boom in the U.S. The state’s production hit 7.5 trillion cubic feet in 2022, the second-highest in the nation behind Texas, according to data from the Energy Information Administration. The advisory firm FTI Consulting estimated the industry supports some 123,000 jobs in the state in research for natural gas firm the Marcellus Shale Coalition.

The administration earlier this year halted new export permits for liquefied natural gas (LNG) while it analyzes their impact on climate change, something that Republicans are sure to pounce on in a state where Biden is not only running neck and neck with former President Trump, but also where Democrats are looking to hold onto a critical Senate seat.

“This is one of those issues the Democratic Party gets split on, it depends on what state you’re in and what part of what state you’re in. I think it’s an albatross in the sense of, if he leans more into the climate side of the party he’s going to lose people in these industries … [but] if he leans the other way, he runs the risk of isolating the environmental side,” said Samuel Chen, a Republican political strategist based in Pennsylvania.

Trump has long sought to associate Biden with support for bans on fracking, the process responsible for the state’s natural gas boom. Although Biden’s official campaign platform never proposed a ban, the GOP nominee hammered him over the issue in the 2020 presidential debates, bringing up comments by Biden on the need to “make sure it’s eliminated” and that he opposed “new fracking.”

No new proposed ban has materialized while Biden has been president. However, the administration’s pause on LNG export permits has drawn GOP criticism and caused some Democrats in the state, including Sen. Bob Casey, who’s running for reelection, to distance themselves from the White House on the issue.

“While the immediate impacts on Pennsylvania remain to be seen, we have concerns about the long-term impacts that this pause will have on the thousands of jobs in Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry. If this decision puts Pennsylvania energy jobs at risk, we will push the Biden Administration to reverse this decision,” Casey and Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) said in a joint statement in February.

Source: The Hill

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