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 The front-runner for the Democratic party nomination used a debate
in Flint, Michigan on Sunday night to oppose fracking anywhere local
communities were against it, wherever it polluted air or water, and
whenever companies refused to disclose what chemicals they use in
the process.
“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,” she said.
But supporters and opponents of fracking dismissed her position as
campaign rhetoric that would collide with the limited powers of a
president to control an activity largely regulated at the state
level.
Defenders of fracking said no president would try to put the brakes
on a drilling technique that has flooded the U.S. with cheap oil and
gas.
“Secretary Clinton’s answer is essentially campaign hyperbole, and
meant to appease her environmental constituency,” said Bruce
Bullock, director of the Maguire Energy Institute at Texas' Southern
Methodist University, in a blog post in the Dallas Morning News. “In
reality, it has little substance to it.”
Green groups welcomed Clinton’s shift from her past support for
fracking. But they also urged her to stop laying down conditions and
caveats.
“Clinton will continue to struggle to convince climate advocates
that she is serious about addressing the crisis until she comes out
for a full ban on fracking,” said Yong Jung Cho, campaign
coordinator of grassroots groups 350 Action.
As secretary of state, Clinton supported fracking as a way to reduce
U.S. dependence on imported energy, and even led a push to spread
shale extraction to allies in Europe to wean them off Russian
gas.[L1N0VX2JT]
Her pledge in Flint to curtail the practice followed the blunt
declaration against fracking by Senator Bernard Sanders, her sole
rival for the nomination. Sanders' challenge has shifted some of
Clinton's positions in the campaign, and her statement on fracking
now comes closer to wider Democratic party sentiment.
“Secretary Clinton has been pushed to the left by Senator Sanders,”
said Kathleen Sgamma, vice president of government affairs at the
Western Energy Alliance.
Sgamma said Democrats from President Barack Obama to Colorado
Governor John Hickenlooper support fracking and the economic
benefits its brings to many states.
“Sometimes things said in the heat of a debate are later wisely set
aside when faced with the economic and national security
consequences of shutting down the technique that unlocks huge
domestic sources of energy that would otherwise have to come from
Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran,” she said.
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The Clinton campaign said the candidate has previously criticized
fracking when it clashed with local opposition.
"If a local government says no (to fracking), not here, they should
be able to do that,” Clinton said during a campaign stop in Keene,
New Hampshire last October.
But fracking for natural gas has also drastically reduced the amount
of coal being burned to produce electricity, and has been mostly
supported by the Obama administration.
David Koranyi, director of the Eurasian Energy Future Initiative at
the Atlantic Council said Clinton’s “very circumspect” answer to the
question in Flint actually reflected the Obama administration’s
current approach to fracking, which seeks to continue expanding
shale production with more environmental oversight.
“I believe wrapped in her strong statement is a pragmatic approach
that recognizes the merits of natural gas as a bridge fuel in the
process of decarbonization,” he said.
Clinton's harder line did, however, delineate the clear differences
between Democrats and Republicans on the issue. All Republican
contenders have strongly defended fracking, leading Louis Finkel of
the American Petroleum Institute to attack Clinton's position as "a
political stunt by those who are spouting populist rhetoric for
political points."
The importance of fracking to the American economy, he said, means
the Democrats "are not being honest with American voters.”
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Bernard Orr)
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