The general election: Who will you support?
During the primary season, this column listed the views and positions of the Democrat and Republican presidential primary candidates on natural gas, climate change and energy. Now that the general election is a few weeks away, it鈥檚 appropriate to reexamine each party鈥檚 nominee position, including the Green and Libertarian parties. In addition to each candidate鈥檚 website, a good source for this information is found at ballotpedia.org.
Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton鈥檚 energy policy is focused on two national goals: installing more than 500 million solar panels across the country by the end of her first term and getting enough renewable energy to power every home in 10 years. She sees natural gas as a bridge from getting the country off coal and into renewable energy sources.
Regarding Clinton鈥檚 stance on fracking, she said, 鈥淵ou know, I don鈥檛 support it when any locality or any state is against it, number one. I don鈥檛 support it when the release of methane or contamination of water is present. I don鈥檛 support it 鈥� number three 鈥� unless we can require that anybody who fracks has to tell us exactly what chemicals they are using. So by the time we get through all of my conditions, I do not think there will be many places in America where fracking will continue to take place. And I think that鈥檚 the best approach, because right now, there are places where fracking is going on that are not sufficiently regulated. So first, we鈥檝e got to regulate everything that is currently underway, and we have to have a system in place that prevents further fracking unless conditions like the ones that I just mentioned are met.鈥�
In December 2014, Clinton said, 鈥淭he science of climate change is unforgiving, no matter what the deniers may say, sea levels are rising, ice caps are melting, storms, droughts and wildfires are wreaking havoc.鈥� Politico reported on August 11, 2016, that Clinton assembled an advisory team on climate change of more than 100 experts. Clinton鈥檚 energy advisor Trevor Houser said, 鈥淒emocrats believe that climate change is too important to wait for climate deniers in Congress to start listening to science. And while it鈥檚 always important to remain open to a conversation about how to address this issue with Congress, we need a plan that we can implement day one, because it鈥檚 too important to wait, and we need to focus on those things as well.鈥�
Republican nominee Donald Trump outlined his energy policies in a speech in Pennsylvania on September 22, 2016: 鈥淚鈥檓 going to lift the restrictions on American energy and allow this wealth to pour into our communities including right here in the state of Pennsylvania. We will end the war on coal and on miners,鈥� said Trump to attendees of the 2016 Shale Insight Conference, a gathering of natural gas producers. He said, 鈥淏illions of dollars in private infrastructure investment have been lost to the Obama-Clinton restriction agenda. 鈥� We will streamline the permitting process for all energy infrastructure projects, including the billions of dollars in projects held up by President Obama 鈥� creating countless more jobs in the process.鈥� Trump further outlined that he would roll back Obama鈥檚 climate change plans, promote oil and gas drilling on federal lands, and promote the construction of oil and gas pipelines.
Trump鈥檚 campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said on September 27, 2016, that Trump believes 鈥済lobal warming is naturally occurring鈥� and humans are not the cause.
On fracking, Trump said, on July 29, 2016, in response to a reporter asking about a fracking ballot question in Colorado, 鈥淲ell, I鈥檓 in favor of fracking, but I think that voters should have a big say in it. I mean, there鈥檚 some areas, maybe, they don鈥檛 want to have fracking. And I think if the voters are voting for it, that鈥檚 up to them鈥� If a municipality or a state wants to ban fracking, I can understand that.鈥�
Trump wrote in his 2011 book, 鈥淭ime to Get Tough,鈥� that the Marcellus Shale was 鈥渙ne of the largest mother lodes of natural gas鈥� and should be used to buy 鈥渕ore time to innovate and develop newer, more efficient, cleaner, and cheaper forms of energy.鈥� In a 2011 interview on energy production, Trump expressed incredulity that the United States is not more aggressively using natural gas and drilling.
In a January 2014 interview on FOX News, Donald Trump claimed climate change was 鈥渁 hoax.鈥� Two years earlier, Trump tweeted, 鈥淭he concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.鈥�
Green candidate Jill Stein believes we need to get away from all fossil fuels before it is too late and that fracking 鈥渋s leading to a spreading cancer of polluted groundwater and fracked gas pipelines.鈥� In an interview on Fox Business on August 26, 2016, Stein said, 鈥淲hat the science actually says and the studies and the experts say that if we have the political will, we can convert. And it鈥檚 not just a matter of shutting down fossil fuel 鈥� it鈥檚 a matter of creating the good jobs for the economy of the future that鈥檚 healthy for us as people and healthy for the planet. 鈥� Fortunately, we save so much money by the health improvements from phasing out fossil fuels鈥搃t鈥檚 actually enough to pay for those jobs to ensure the green energy transition.鈥�
In a November 29, 2015, interview with The Harvard Crimson, Stein said she 鈥渉opes to replicate key aspects of the New Deal legislation,鈥� which she believes 鈥渨ould allow the U.S. to become fully dependent on renewable energy within 15 years.鈥� She said the plan 鈥渞evives the economy, creates well-paying living wage jobs that we desperately need at the same time that it greens the economy and the energy system and therefore turns the tide on climate change and makes wars for oil obsolete. It鈥檚 a win-win.鈥�
Stein said, 鈥淥bama鈥檚 proposals are a step in the right direction but way too little. We need an emergency national mobilization similar to what our country did after Pearl Harbor at the outset of WWII.鈥� Stein proposes transitioning 鈥渢o 100 percent clean energy for everything 鈥� not just electricity 鈥� by 2030 while creating 20 million jobs and avoiding hundreds of thousands of annual 鈥榚xcess deaths鈥� from air pollution.鈥�
Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson supports the EPA, saying, 鈥済overnment I think has a fundamental responsibility to protect us against those that would do us harm, in this case pollution. And I support the EPA.鈥� His campaign website states: 鈥淛ohnson does not, however, believe the government should be engaging in social and economic engineering for the purpose of creating winners and losers in what should be a robust free market. Preventing a polluter from harming our water or air is one thing. Having politicians in Washington, D.C., acting on behalf of high powered lobbyists, determine the future of clean energy innovation is another. 鈥� In a healthy economy that allows the market to function unimpeded, consumers, innovators, and personal choices will do more to bring about environmental protection and restoration than will government regulations driven by special interests. Too often, when Washington, D.C. gets involved, the winners are those with the political clout to write the rules of the game, and the losers are the people and businesses actually trying to innovate. 鈥� Governors Johnson and Weld strongly believe that the federal government should prevent future harm by focusing on regulations that protect us from real harm, rather than needlessly costing American jobs and freedom in order to pursue a political agenda.鈥�
Regarding climate change, Johnson said in a CNBC interview on August 22, 2016, 鈥淚 do think that climate change is occurring, that it is man-caused. One of the proposals that I think is a very libertarian proposal, and I鈥檓 just open to this, is taxing carbon emission that may have the result of being self-regulating. 鈥� The market will take care of it. I mean, when you look at it from the standpoint of better results, and actually less money to achieve those results, that鈥檚 what is being professed by a carbon tax.鈥�
Johnson said in a December 2011 interview with NPR that although he believed climate change was human-induced, he did not support cap and trade regulations to lower carbon emissions. He said, 鈥淵ou know, I鈥檓 accepting that global warming is man-caused. That said, I am opposed to cap and trade. I think that free-market approach. Hey, we鈥檙e all demanding less carbon emission. I think we鈥檙e going to get it.鈥�
In November 2011, Johnson said he would 鈥渒eep an open mind鈥� on fracking.
(David Pearl is vice president of Infinity Resource Group, Inc., a professional mineral rights consulting firm, specializing in the leasing and sale of mineral rights in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. Pearl is also president of a natural gas fuel dispensing patent holding company and director of a natural gas fuel island development company. Your questions are welcomed by calling 412-535-9200 or by emailing IRGOilGas@gmail.com.)