Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) President Dave Spigelmyer issued a statement on Feb. 13 on legislation recently introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate to ban hydraulic fracturing, highlighting its potential economic impact.
“Banning the safe and strongly regulated use of hydraulic fracturing would bring our economy to a standstill,” Spigelmyer said. “It would result in the loss of hundreds-of-thousands of good-paying jobs and wipe out billions of dollars of capital investment in Pennsylvania while reversing the environmental progress we have gained thanks to natural gas.”
The Ban Fracking Act would establish an immediate ban on all new federal permits for fracking-related infrastructure and institute a ban on fracking within 2,500 feet of homes and schools by 2021. It would ban fracking nationwide, starting in 2025.
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) sponsored the Ban Fracking Act, H.R. 5857, in the U.S. House on Feb. 12, while U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced the companion bill in the Senate, S. 3247.
MSC noted that, according to a U.S. Chamber analysis, Pennsylvania would lose 609,000 jobs, $261 billion in state GDP, and $23.4 billion in state and local tax revenues if the bill is signed into law.
“Supporting and growing domestic shale production should be a core focus of any serious policy discussion aimed at continuing environmental progress, economic growth, and American security,” Spigelmyer said.