Drillers in energy-rich Pennsylvania this week asked Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris to clarify her position on natural gas, which the energy industry touts as a clean fuel but climate activists say poses a threat to global warming.
President Joe Biden in January imposed a halt on new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export permits to study its environmental impacts, aiming to gain traction with the party’s green voting blocs in an election year.
But Harris now faces a battle against Republican rival Donald Trump, who has said he would immediately lift the ban on permits if elected.
If she wins, she would likely be tasked with lifting the moratorium and incorporating any new recommendations from the promised review, which the administration says it hopes to implement after the November election.
Pennsylvania, a must-win state for both Harris and Trump, is the nation’s second-largest natural gas producer. The state’s natural gas is tightly locked in shale rock and requires fracking to extract it.
“We need a lot more details,” said Dave Callahan, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, whose members gathered in northeastern Pennsylvania this week for an annual conference.
Reuters spoke to a dozen natural gas and drilling executives who attended the conference, all of whom said they were still guessing about Harris’ energy policy.
“I think the public should know where he stands on these matters before the election, because ultimately they’re the ones who will be impacted,” said Rob Boulware, director of stakeholder relations for Seneca Resources Co., a major producer of Marcellus Shale natural gas.
A Harris campaign spokesperson acknowledged the industry’s need for clarity, but suggested the details of her position on LNG should be guided by the outcome of the review.
“The vice president believes we need to make decisions based on the best economic and scientific information — including projected impacts on energy costs, energy security, the environment, and public health,” the campaign aide said.
Harris has embraced a plan on energy policy that her aides call “strategic ambiguity” to avoid alienating environmental activists and moderate voters this November.
She no longer supports a ban on oil and gas fracking on federal lands, as she did during her 2020 campaign for president.
The United States is the world’s top producer of natural gas, and will become the No. 1 exporter of LNG in 2022, as Europe looks to the US to wean itself off Russia’s vast energy supplies following its invasion of Ukraine.
That has been a boon for U.S. natural gas producers such as Devon Energy Corp (DVN.N) and ExxonMobil Corp (XOM.N).
In July, a federal judge blocked Biden’s decision to freeze new LNG export permits, ruling that the administration had overstepped its authority. However, the ruling did not require the administration to issue new permits, and it has issued only one permit since then.
Toby Rice, CEO of major natural gas producer EQT, told natural gas executives at the coalition meeting that political decisions are hurting consumers.
“How can we have such enormous energy resources when energy bills in this country are rising by 35%?” he asked. “These bizarre things are happening in the energy sector because political power has overridden market forces.”
The rise in gas prices in recent years is largely due to the surge in global demand for U.S. natural gas since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
U.S. producers exported 356.4 billion cubic feet of LNG in June, up from 109 billion cubic feet four years earlier, according to the latest data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. About 40% went to European allies such as Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.
Meanwhile, the EIA estimates that North America’s LNG export capacity will more than double to 24 billion cubic feet per day by the end of this decade.
Currently, gas from Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale travels to the Gulf Coast and Maryland’s Cove Point terminal before being exported. But the industry hopes to have an LNG export facility closer to home in the Philadelphia area.