Fact Check: Joe Biden Misleadingly Claims He Would Not Ban Fracking

Claim: “I do rule out banning fracking,” Joe Biden said at Thursday night’s debate.

VERDICT: Misleading.

Biden stated, “I have never said I oppose fracking.” When Donald Trump said Biden was “on tape” opposing fracking, Biden challenged him to put it on his website.

Here is that video:

Joe Biden: “no more, no new fracking” in my administrationhttps://t.co/gnHCex8NPv pic.twitter.com/bwvLaU2VyB

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 16, 2020

Biden’s running mate, Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA), has said she would outright ban fracking.

Kamala Harris backs a federal ban on frackinghttps://t.co/BM0xhvyX02 pic.twitter.com/QHMmg2Xhv4

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 4, 2019

Biden said Thursday that “we need other industries to get to a complete zero emissions by 2025.”

That was likely a misstatement. Biden’s campaign website calls for something like this by 2035, ten years later than he promised during the presidential debate.

In any case, Biden’s program of subsidies for renewable energy and penalties for fossil fuels would effectively eliminate fracking in the United States. This would cost hundreds of thousands of jobs in the crucial battleground state of Pennsylvania and millions of jobs nationwide.

In short, Biden would not need to ban fracking because his combination of policies would eliminate its economic viability.