With the presidential election just two months away, all eyes are on Pennsylvania. Donald Trump and Kamala Harris’s campaigns have each spent more than $130 million to advertise in the swing state, hoping to win its coveted 19 electoral votes and clear a path to the Oval Office.
Since securing Pennsylvania is likely crucial for winning the overall election — Trump won the state in 2016 and lost in 2020, reflecting the national outcome — political operatives and reporters are once more descending on the region in an attempt to crack the code of what makes Pennsylvania voters tick.
This year, as in election seasons past, politicians and the media are continuing to spread the dubious idea that one issue in particular has outsized importance to Pennsylvania’s voters: hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas, also known as fracking. On September 4, at a Pennsylvania town hall moderated by Fox News host Sean Hannity, Trump emphasized his support for fracking, telling the audience that “there’s no chance” Harris would allow the controversial practice as president.
“If she won, you’re not going to have any fracking in Pennsylvania,” Trump said. “You can’t take the chance. You’ve got no choice. You’ve got to vote for me.”
In reality, Harris herself has emphasized that she is no foe to fracking, despite its well-documented harmful impact on human health, climate and the environment. While Harris had previously expressed support for a fracking ban during her 2019 presidential run, she has made it clear that this election she is reversing course. “What I have seen is that we can grow, and we can increase a clean energy economy without banning fracking,” Harris told CNN reporter Dana Bash during a sit-down interview in August.
Harris’s switch-up is largely considered part of her bid to win Pennsylvania, which is one of the country’s top producing states for fracked natural gas.
The media has gladly helped prop up Pennsylvania’s reputation as a fracking-loving state: During the 2020 election, for instance, the New York Times “traveled to........