by Madison Gesiotto
If Joe Biden and his new running mate Kamala Harris get their way, millions of high-paying American energy jobs will be eliminated and entire industries will be cut to the bone.
Ohio, like a number of other states across the country, has enjoyed tremendous benefits from the shale energy revolution. The shale boom was a crucial lifeline following the 2008 financial crisis, which cost Ohio more than 2 million jobs.
Thanks to the groundbreaking innovation of hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, the United States became a net exporter of crude oil and petroleum products last year for the first time since 1949. Meanwhile, prices for natural gas for “U.S. residential and commercial consumers” fell by 24 and 36 percent, respectively, from 2006 to 2019. This has translated into lower electricity costs for families and businesses, creating cascading benefits for the entire economy.
But Biden and Harris have proposed banning all “new” fracking — which effectively means all fracking — as well as eliminating the use of oil and natural gas in the United States, which would be devastating for the American economy.
The resulting higher prices for petroleum products, natural gas, and electricity would be particularly disruptive to Ohio’s manufacturing sector, which has erased over half its pandemic-related job losses in just two months, but would be crippled by the loss of abundant domestic energy.
By 2025, a fracking ban would eliminate around 700,000 jobs, reduce state GDP by $245 billion, and increase cost-of-living per capita by $5,625 — and that’s just in Ohio.
Biden’s selection of Kamala Harris as his running mate illustrates just how out of touch he is with the American worker. Senator Harris has enthusiastically embraced the radical Green New Deal, for instance, even though the $93 trillion proposal would bankrupt the country and eviscerate entire industries.
Harris has also stated her commitment to reinstating the Obama-Biden administration’s disastrous Clean Power Plan — better known as the “War on Coal” — which would cost consumers an additional $214 billion by 2030. Moreover, 45 states would see double-digit increases in wholesale energy costs, with 16 states seeing 25 percent or higher increase in wholesale electricity costs by 2030. In Ohio, prices would increase by an estimated 31.2 percent.
The Biden-Harris ticket would be disastrous for American workers and families, particularly here in Ohio, where the shale boom is critical to our future prosperity.
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Madison Gesiotto is an Ohio attorney, former Miss Ohio USA and an opinion contributor for The Hill.
Photo “Madison Gesiotto” by Madison Gesiotto. Background Photo “Joe Biden and Kamala Harris” by Joe Biden.Â
