Bernie Sanders Calls on Democrat Candidates to Support ‘Full Fracking Ban’

DES MOINES, IOWA - AUGUST 11: Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
Chip Somodevilla/Getty
Hannah Knudsen

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Wednesday called on others in the Democrat presidential field to support a “full fracking ban” on both public and private lands.

“Any proposal to avert the climate crisis must include a full fracking ban on public and private lands,” Sanders said Wednesday, ahead of CNN’s seven-hour climate change town hall.

He continued, calling the concept of safe fracking “pure fiction” and decrying the release of “methane from natural gas” as a major contributing factor to climate change.

“Fracking is a danger to our water supply. It’s a danger to the air we breathe. It causes earthquakes. It’s highly explosive. Safe fracking is, like clean coal, pure fiction,” Sanders continued.

“But, most importantly, methane from natural gas contributes to climate change and is setting us on a path to disaster,” he added. “When we are in the White House, we will end the era of fossil fuels, and that includes fracking”:

Sanders’ call to ban fracking is not necessarily new. The Vermont senator promised in March that his administration would “ban fracking nationwide and rapidly move to renewable energy”:

Sanders also called for a full ban on fracking as part of his $16 trillion Green New Deal proposal released last month.

“Fracking and mountaintop removal coal mining are two particularly harmful methods used to extract fossil fuels,” his plan states. “They make surrounding communities less healthy and less safe. They must be immediately banned.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden (D) has also expressed a desire to ban fracking, telling CNN’s Dana Bash that his administration would work to eliminate it.

“Just to clarify, would there be any place for fossil fuels, including coal and fracking, in a Biden administration,” Bash asked during July’s Democrat debate in Detroit.

“No. We would work it out. We would make sure it’s eliminated, and no more subsidies for either one of those, either — any fossil fuel,” Biden said:

Ten Democrat candidates – including Biden and Sanders – will participate in the CNN-hosted climate change town hall Wednesday evening.

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