Trump Makes One More Desperate Bid to Frack the Election

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Donald Trump is considering an executive order that would seek to make the case for expanding fossil fuel drilling. The order would include an analysis of fracking's economic impacts and the possible consequences of a ban.

The news came on the same day that Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette, while touring a fracking well in Pennsylvania, made the astonishingly false claim that "there are no credible studies that show fracking harms the environment in a significant way."

In response, Food & Water Action Policy Director Mitch Jones released the following statement:

"This order is just one more desperate attempt by this White House to make fracking into a winning campaign issue. There is no doubt that fracking poisons our air and water, and that drilling is driving us towards climate crisis. There is something grotesquely fitting that an administration that has sacrificed climate action for the sake of the fossil fuel industry thinks fracking is a winner.

"The truth is that the fracking industry is in collapse. Fracking has never been the economic engine that its backers have claimed it to be, and any attempts to resuscitate it are only delaying the inevitable. Debt-ridden drilling companies have laid off thousands of workers while CEOs make off with millions in profits. Instead of looking for novel ways to bail out the frackers, political leaders who profess to have even the slightest concern for passing on a livable world to our children must work to wind down fossil fuels, and create a just transition for workers who can build the clean energy economy of the future."