Did Biden break a campaign promise not to ban fracking?
President Biden has taken no steps to ban existing fracking operations, in line with his campaign promises.
The new administration did announce a 60-day suspension of new oil and gas drilling permits on federal land, including both new conventional drilling as well as fracking, which extracts oil and gas from rock. This is consistent with Biden's campaign promises—his climate plan stated it will ban “new oil and gas permitting on public lands and waters” in an effort to protect American land and wildlife. U.S. producers derive 12% of natural gas and 25% of oil output from federal lands, according to the American Petroleum Institute, which opposes a permanent ban.
While outlining ambitious targets to curb greenhouse-gas emissions, Biden told a CNN audience in September that “there’s no rationale to eliminate, right now, fracking.”
