Across Pennsylvania, debates about energy policy in the past few decades have largely centered on two issues: fracking and pipelines. It has created a conundrum for politicians, particularly for Democrats, given two key tenets of their party: protecting the environment and supporting organized labor, which has thousands of workers in the commonwealth’s energy sector.
Debates about fracking and pipelines have created a conundrum for Democrats in the past few decades, as they court both environmentalists and organized labor.
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“Green” energy proposals are no economic therapeutic for Pennsylvania. They’re snake oil miracle cures that ignore the realities of physics and people’s needs.
In January, the Political Economy Research Institute “reimagined” Pennsylvania in a 135-page document that proposed spending billions of dollars on so-called renewable energy to restore the state after the covid-19 pandemic. Three months later, a Philadelphia Inquirer editorial advised the state to “manage the decline” of natural gas while investing in “high-paying green union jobs” to make up for lost employment.
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President Joe Biden s $2.25 trillion American Jobs Plan seeks to put people to work by rebuilding our nation s critical infrastructure. But his plan to build back better overlooks the backbone of America s energy system: pipelines.
Not only are these energy assets critical to powering our economy, pipelines are the lynchpin in helping the administration meet its climate goals. The president has pledged to slash U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases in at least half by 2030.
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Make no mistake, the United States can continue to be an economic and climate leader by embracing responsible natural gas production, infrastructure, and use.