Tipsheet

Pennsylvania Voters: Banning Fracking Will Be Devastating

Beth Baumann
Beth Baumann  |  November 01, 2020 10:45 AM

In Pennsylvania, more than 30,000 people have jobs in the natural gas industry. The biggest concern for those in the Keystone State are whether or not fracking will be banned. Both former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris have said they would eliminate fracking under their administration.

"The natural gas industry put this area on the map," Emanuel Paris, Senior Project Manager at Alex E. Paris Contracting Co. Inc. told CNN. 

Without the natural gas industry, Paris said his company would "be pretty nonexistent."

"Our company went from approximately 250 employees to 400 to about 650 within years," he explained. 

"President Trump has a more clear perspective on keeping fracking going with minimal regulations, where Biden, in the past, and through the campaign, has gone back and forth on what he wants to do," Paris said. 

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One week before the interview, Paris had to lay off 130 employees. The abundance of natural gas, falling gas prices and the toll of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic had a detrimental impact on his family's 100-year-old business. 

Decisions that impact the natural gas industry have a detrimental impact on other businesses throughout the area. If people in the industry aren't working, they aren't going out to eat or spending money on more luxury items. It's an impact small businesses like T's Bar and Grill, the only restaurant in West Pittsburgh, feel. More than 50 percent of her business is from those who work in the oil and gas industry.

"It's almost like a domino effect and it could be disastrous, in my eyes, if first the pandemic, and then fracking is banned," Sharlo Tkalcevic, the owner of T's, told CNN.

If a ban on fracking was implemented, like former Vice President Joe Biden hopes for, Tkalcevic would have to close up the business she's built over the last 12 years.

What coastal elites fail to understand – or care about – is the domino effect that getting rid of fracking has on an entire area, especially in states like Pennsylvania. They're more focused on appeasing the fringe elements of their progressive base. And it could cost many their livelihoods.