Guess what? A President can’t ban fracking in Pennsylvania

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Fracking for natural gas in Pennsylvania took up significant airtime during the presidential debate Tuesday night at the National Constitution Center in Old City, especially when you consider how little influence a president has when it comes to drilling for oil and gas in the state.

In such a tight presidential race, Pennsylvania will be a hard-fought swing state. So, of course, we have to talk about fracking.

Former President Donald Trump is all for it, and at Tuesday’s debate, he claimed Vice President Kamala Harris is not.

“And she will never allow fracking in Pennsylvania. If she won the election, fracking in Pennsylvania will end on day one,” Trump said.

There’s a big problem with Trump’s statement because a president can’t “ban fracking” in Pennsylvania, only an act of Congress will accomplish that.

When you hear talk about banning fracking by a president – that is limited to federal land. And the state has virtually no federal land to frack. The Allegheny National Forest, in the north central part of the state, is the only place where federal leases exist, and they span about 850 acres.

The vast majority of leases are on private land, something a president cannot touch. The state also leases land to oil and gas development – in 2020 those leases included about 250,000 acres.