Donald Trump intensifies fracking assault on Joe Biden at Pennsylvania rallies

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  • October 25, 2020
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Donald Trump has intensified his attacks on Joe Biden over fracking by showing repeated adverts to his crowds of supporters at rallies in Pennsylvania.

The US president and his Republican allies hoped to drive a wedge between Mr Biden and working class voters tied to the state’s booming natural gas industry.

Mr Trump used a barrage of TV adverts and conservative and right-wing websites, which were repeated at every Republican rally in the state.

The 74-year-old presidential candidate has claimed that Mr Biden intends to “ban” or end national gas extraction. However the Democrats have said that this is not their official position.

Mr Trump’s fracking play comes as polls show the president is struggling to overtake Mr Biden in Pennsylvania.

A video screen broadcasts footage of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden during a President Donald Trump campaign rally on Sunday (Getty Images)

Mr Biden’s climate change plan aims to reach net-zero greenhouse gases emissions by 2050 and does not involve banning fracking.

The former vice president argues that net-zero threshold can be achieved by helping eliminate emissions from natural gas infrastructure, while redirecting government subsidies for oil and gas to cleaner energies.

“I do rule out banning fracking because … we need other industries to transition to get to ultimately a complete zero-emissions,” Mr Biden said in Thursday night’s debate.

But Mr Trump has routinely cited various statements from Mr Biden, several of which were made during the Democratic primary campaign, to muddy his position.

In one, Mr Biden told a town hall questioner last year: “We’re going to end fossil fuel.”

US Elections 2020: Trump v Biden Final Presidential Debate

Mr Biden’s running mate, California Senator Kamala Harris, has endorsed a ban during her own bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

At a recent Mr Trump’s rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, the president showed the crowd a video of various comments by Mr Biden on fracking in a bid to portray him as opposed to the process.

That was days before the pair tussled over energy during the debate.

After Mr Biden noted he wanted to “transition away from the oil industry”, Mr Trump pounced.

“Basically what he is saying is, he is going to destroy the oil industry,” Mr Trump said.

“Will you remember that, Texas? Will you remember that, Pennsylvania? Oklahoma? Ohio?”

While Mr Biden insists he does not want to ban fracking broadly, he does want to stop issuing new drilling permits on government lands, which its agencies say accounts for about 10 per cent of natural gas production and 7 per cent of oil production.

As part of a two trillion dollar plan (£1.5 trillion), he also wants to make electricity production free of fossil fuel emissions by 2035 and reach net-zero carbon emissions in the US by 2050 through technologies such as carbon capture sequestration.

Scientists say it is possible to achieve net-zero carbon emissions in the US by 2050 without eliminating the use of fossil fuels.

Additional reporting by Associated Press.