Republican Rep. August Pfluger introduced a new bill Friday that would prevent the president from imposing a nationwide ban on fracking without congressional consent. [emphasis, links added]
Pfluger's Protecting America's Energy Production Act would explicitly require Congress to act to impose a moratorium on fracking and prevent the president from doing so directly.
Some Democrats have called for a de facto or legal moratorium on fracking, including Vice President Kamala Harris, who ran for president in the 2020 election cycle.
“Congress believes that states should maintain primacy in the regulation of hydraulic fracturing for oil and natural gas production on state and private lands,” the bill reads.
“Notwithstanding any other provision of law, The president may not declare a moratorium on fracking unless an act of Congress authorizes a moratorium on fracking.
Some blue states — including New York and California — have passed legislation or taken other actions to crack down on fracking.
Many well-funded environmental groups have also been advocating for a ban on fracking for years.
“The Biden administration has spent the past four years attacking the U.S. energy industry, most recently seeking to shut it down by banning nearly all new U.S. offshore drilling projects,” Pfluger said in a statement.
“Republicans and President Trump will have a responsibility to re-establish American energy independence and dominance in the 119th Congress. That's why my first piece of legislation in the 119th Congress will protect the American energy industry and consumers from the federal government.” of infringement.
More broadly, President Joe Biden has taken a series of actions during his term to reduce fossil fuel production.
Some of his key policy decisions include a ban on new oil and gas leasing in 625 million acres of federally controlled waters, a failed 2021 attempt to ban new oil and gas leasing on federal lands, and a freeze on new liquefied natural gas export licenses nearly a year.
Read the break from The Daily Caller
