Fox-Fracking
Molly Butler / Media Matters

Research/Study Research/Study

Fox News is helping Republicans spin fracking as a major election issue

The network mentioned fracking 544 times in the lead-up to Kamala Harris’ CNN interview

Special Programs Climate & Energy

Written by Allison Fisher

Research contributions from Ilana Berger

Published

Fox News is helping the right elevate fracking as a supposedly major election issue by continuing to litigate Kamala Harris’ position even after she and her campaign have stated that she no longer supports a ban on the natural gas extraction procedure. By keeping the focus on Harris’ position, Fox is distracting from important context about the controversial technique and its relevance to voters. 

According to Axios, shortly after Harris announced her bid for the presidency, Republicans started “circulating Harris' endorsement of a fracking ban during her short-lived 2019 White House run — even though she walked it back after becoming President Biden's running mate.”

Then, during the August 29 joint CNN interview with Harris and running mate Tim Walz, one of the first questions from Dana Bash was about her position on fracking, with the CNN anchor describing it as “a pretty big issue, particularly in your must-win state of Pennsylvania.”

An analysis by Media Matters found that from July 27, when Kamala Harris’ campaign stated that she does not support a ban on fracking, to the August 29 interview, Fox News mentioned fracking 544 times, compared to CNN’s 201 mentions and MSNBC’s 30.

Because Fox is driving the discussion around fracking, it has often focused on whether Harris supports the practice and how her position would affect her electability in Pennsylvania.

News networks would better serve their audiences by explaining the climate impacts or local environmental threats associated with fossil fuel extraction, how local voters actually feel about fracking, how energy both clean and fossil fuel-based has fared under the Biden-Harris administration, and even whether a presidential candidate could actually ban fracking.  

  • Fox News shows no sign of stopping its attacks on Harris’ fracking position even as both she and her campaign have stated she doesn’t support a ban

  • Fox News has suggested that Harris will be hostile to the oil and gas industry regardless of her stated position.

    On the August 15 edition of Fox & Friends, co-host Ainsley Earhardt said, “She wanted to ban fracking, her entire career. Now all of a sudden she’s saying I’m not gonna ban fracking. … She wants to get into the White House on January 20 … and then not change anything. She wants to go so liberal. So just don’t get caught up in her flip-flops, because she does not believe this in her heart. She is — look at her voting record.”

    On The Ingraham Angle, Fox host Jeanine Pirro suggested that Harris has not changed her fracking position from 2019, saying: “That was just five years ago. Kamala's agenda was clear as day. Radical and progressive. But suddenly she doesn't believe in any of that anymore,” listing positions including fracking. “Will the real Kamala Harris please stand up? … How can the Trump campaign ensure that voters see the real Harris?”

    Pirro’s guest, former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy added: “So it doesn’t matter if she changes her words. We know what her actions are.”

    After Fox & Friends aired a clip of Harris talking about fracking, guest Andre Beliveau of the Commonwealth Foundation said, “She can backtrack or flip-flop all she wants. The record of the Biden-Harris administration the last four years is quite clear and that record has included — I mean, it's been Green New Deal-ism. It has been a pause on LNG exports.”

    After Harris’ CNN interview, some Fox News figures said her position on fracking can’t be trusted.

    While the interview was still airing, Pirro and Fox contributor Joe Concha attacked the vice president’s response on Hannity, with Concha claiming that “she's lying” about her position on fracking. The following day, Fox & Friends co-host Lawrence Jones questioned whether she was just going along with Biden’s position and would ultimately revert back to her 2019 stance.

    The network also helped spread misinformation about Biden’s position on fracking in 2020, and it dominated the conversation then too.

    During the week leading up to that election, the network also pushed the false narrative that Pennsylvania would likely be won or lost depending on how voters interpreted the candidates’ stance on fracking. And during the 2022 midterms elections, Fox attacked Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman for his stance on fracking, conflating his previous support for a fracking moratorium — a temporary prohibition — with an outright, permanent ban.

    Even though the playbook has been exposed, Fox News continues to use it to shape the national media coverage of the issue.

  • Rather than obsessing about her position, networks could provide valuable context about fracking

  • Presidents cannot ban fracking on private and state land, where the vast majority – 90% – of fracked-gas production is done. “While there are several ways Harris, if elected president, could halt fracking on federal lands using executive power, she wouldn’t be able to unilaterally ban it on private land,” Bloomberg explains. “Under a 2005 law, the Environmental Protection Agency has almost no regulatory power over fracking. Changing that would require an act of Congress.” [Bloomberg, 7/27/24; PolitiFact, 9/1/20]

    Under the Biden-Harris administration, U.S. oil and gas production is at an all-time high – including in Pennsylvania — and its policies are supporting major energy projects in the state. As reported by Axios, the state is “part of the multibillion-dollar hydrogen ‘hubs’ program under the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law,” and the “EPA announced nearly $400 million in grants for climate projects there under the Inflation Reduction Act.” [Reuters, 3/28/24; U.S. Energy Information Administration, accessed 8/2/24; Axios, 7/23/24]

    Public support for fracking in Pennsylvania is not a given. After Harris’ recent CNN interview Pennsylvania-based journalist Nick Field wrote, “I can not emphasize enough that - unless they happen to work in the fracking industry - Pennsylvanians don't care about fracking.” A 2020 survey conducted by YouGov found support for fracking in the state was evenly split, though Pennsylvanians who live in rural areas or identify as Republican were more likely to back it. [Twitter/X, 8/29/24; YouGov, 10/19/20]

    Real issues with fracking are almost entirely ignored in election horse race coverage. In the final week of the 2020 election cycle, cable news coverage failed to meaningfully cover the well-documented environmental and climate issues associated with fracking. This cycle, the media can add to the list of issues the fact that the industry has not delivered the wealth promised to many communities burdened with fracking wells. [Media Matters, 11/19/20; Environmental Health News, 2/12/21]

  • Methodology

  • Media Matters searched transcripts in the Kinetiq video database for all original programming on CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC for the term “fracking” from July 27, 2024, when Bloomberg reported that Harris’ campaign said she doesn’t support a ban on fracking, through August 29, 2024, when CNN asked Harris about her changing position in an exclusive interview. We considered each instance of the term as a single mention.