Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont introduced a bill this week that would end hydraulic fracking in the United States.
The bill, which is named “a bill to ban the practice of hydraulic fracturing, and for other purposes,” was also worked on by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat.
The move echoes Bernie’s campaign rhetoric, which has often included calls to ban fracking and eliminate the industry.
“I don’t mind if @MarkRuffalo spoils his own movies. But please, don’t ruin the surprise of our new legislation with Rep. @AOC, @SenJeffMerkley and @RepDarrenSoto. I don’t want the dirty fracking industry CEOs to know what hit them,” Bernie tweeted in response to an internet video showing actor Mark Ruffalo talking about the bill before it was officially introduced.
I don’t mind if @MarkRuffalo spoils his own movies. But please, don’t ruin the surprise of our new legislation with Rep. @AOC, @SenJeffMerkley and @RepDarrenSoto.
I don’t want the dirty fracking industry CEOs to know what hit them. pic.twitter.com/OBbQnpOHsy
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) January 30, 2020
Roughly 160,000 people work in the natural gas and mining extraction field, according to a 2019 report, and more than half a million people work in the natural gas industry as a whole.
The bill has been criticized by many in the oil industry — including the American Petroleum Institute, which argued the bill would hurt workers and increase 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,” a spokeswoman for the American Petroleum Institute said.
The Trump administration has encouraged fracking, which helped lower America’s greenhouse emissions in 2019, and it recently paved the way for fracking to be allowed on 1 million acres of land in California. That is still being debated in court.
