Exclusive – Watch: Ted Cruz Torches Bernie Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez’s Bill to Ban Fracking

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) released a video on Tuesday that denounces Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) legislation to ban fracking, which Breitbart News has obtained exclusively. Cruz contends in the video that banning fracking would devastate the American economy.

Cruz released the video after Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Rep. Darren Soto (D-FL) introduced legislation that would ban fracking nationwide.

“We are currently experiencing an American energy renaissance with the United States having now become the number one producer of oil and the number one producer of natural gas on the planet,” Cruz says in the video.

The Texas conservative warns that the climate movement “has become an emotional, primal scream rather being driven by science.”

The video continues, showing a clip of presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) discussing how by 2030, there will be “no more cars,” by 2035 “no more production of electricity.”

“The political leaders who are advocating for this are also advocating for massive government control of the economy and socialism,” Cruz added.

“Climate is a good excuse to say, ‘You’ve got to have socialism, or else humanity is going to die,’” Cruz said. The video then features a clip of Ocasio-Cortez saying that the world will end in 12 years if we do not enact the Green New Deal.

“Policies to ban fracking would cost 14 million jobs nationally and in the state of Texas would cost one and a half million jobs. It is hard to find something that would be more economically devastating,” Cruz said.

Cruz cited a study from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that found that a national fracking ban would eliminate 14 million jobs, as well as raise energy prices for Americans and increase American dependence on foreign energy.

The Texas conservative explained last year that fracking has worked to reduce American carbon emissions far more than the Paris climate accord or other environmental regulations, saying:

Fracking has become demonized. But fracking unlocked massive shale deposits of both natural gas and oils. Totally transformed the geo-political world. And in particular has resulted in an incredible shift from coal powered production to natural gas-powered production.

Nothing – no socialist regulator, no Paris deal – nothing has had anywhere close to having an impact on carbon emissions as has a Texas oil man innovating fracking and moving away from coal to natural gas. I think that’s how we should address the environment through innovation that also produces jobs.

America’s use of hydraulic fracturing has allowed America to use more of its natural gas resources, which the International Energy Agency (IEA) said has helped reduce America’s carbon dioxide emissions.

The IEA wrote in a recent report:

A 15% reduction in the use of coal for power generation underpinned the decline in overall US emissions in 2019. Coal-fired power plants faced even stronger competition from natural gas-fired generation, with benchmark gas prices an average of 45% lower than 2018 levels. As a result, gas increased its share in electricity generation to a record high of 37%. Overall electricity demand declined because demand for air-conditioning and heating was lower as a result of milder summer and winter weather.

Cruz wrote in response to the report last week, “FACT you will NEVER see on the 6 o’clock news: U.S. emissions FELL 2.9%, or by 140 million tons, continuing the trend of the United States LEADING THE WORLD IN TOTAL EMISSIONS DECLINE since 2000.”

FACT you will NEVER see on the 6 o’clock news: U.S. emissions FELL 2.9%, or by 140 million tons, continuing the trend of the United States LEADING THE WORLD IN TOTAL EMISSIONS DECLINE since 2000. https://t.co/bZTkmCZbOs

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 12, 2020

In contrast to Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders, Cruz has sponsored legislation such as the American Energy Renaissance Act (AERA) and the Natural Gas Export Expansion Act, which would remove burdensome regulations that inhibit America’s continued dominance in oil and natural gas production.

With Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders pursuing policies that experts say would hurt American jobs, it was unsurprising when one New Hampshire constituent said that Sanders’ “whole ideology would be destructive to the country. It’s anti-growth; it’s anti-family, anti-American.”