New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently teamed up with Congressman Darren Soto to introduce a national fracking ban in the House.
The bill was announced at the end of January, and functions as a companion bill to Senate legislation introduced by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley. Both of these bills would completely prohibit fracking across America by 2025.
Additionally, these laws would bar fracking within 2,500 feet of homes and schools by February 2021. These legislative items would allegedly allow working class families to transition for working families in the fracking industry.
“Fracking is destroying our land and our water,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “It is wreaking havoc on our communities’ health. We must do our job to protect our future from the harms caused by the fracking industry. That is why I am proud to introduce the Fracking Ban Act with @RepDarrenSoto today.”
Fracking is destroying our land and our water. It is wreaking havoc on our communities' health. We must do our job to protect our future from the harms caused by the fracking industry. That is why I am proud to introduce the Fracking Ban Act with @RepDarrenSoto today. pic.twitter.com/Mt7EEUxPPo
— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@RepAOC) February 12, 2020
In a statement, Soto declared that fracking poses a hazard to “our health, safety and environment.”
“If we want to transition from fossil fuel emissions as we work towards building a 100 percent clean economy, pulling back from fracking is a critical first step,” he stated. “Failure to act will only make the crisis at hand even more detrimental for future generations of Americans.”
As part of his presidential campaign, Sanders promised to eliminate fracking if he comes out victorious in November.
American Petroleum Institute spokeswoman Bethany Aronhalt informed The Hill in a statement last month that a fracking ban could lead to an increase in household energy costs.
“Banning a safe, successful method of developing energy would erase a generation of American energy progress and in the process destroy millions of U.S. jobs, spike household energy costs and hurt farmers and manufacturers,” she declared after the Senate bill was first unveiled.
Certain conservative organizations such as the Heritage Foundation argue that fracking has facilitated a cheap and safe energy boom.
