Kamala Harris’ fracking flip-flop shows perils of Pa. campaigning. Josh Shapiro can help.

This week, Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has been doing damage control for statements she made in 2019 in support of a ban on hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking.

Politicians seeking votes in Pennsylvania have to stake middle ground on fracking, a method of drilling horizontally through shale to tap pockets of natural gas. Harris’ flip-flop is emblematic of the treacherous path Democrats tread in Pennsylvania where the fossil fuel industry flexes economic and political muscle. At the same time, the state has forceful environmentalists pushing for renewable energy.

Harris’ original call for a ban came during a CNN town hall in 2019 when she said there is “no question I’m in favor of banning fracking and starting with what we can do on Day 1 around public lands.”

Fracking in Pennsylvania takes place on private properties. It would require Congress to restrict fracking on private property.

Harris backed away from the position in 2020 after she became President Joe Biden’s running mate. An official with the vice president’s campaign told The Inquirer on Thursday that she no longer supports a ban on fracking.

Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, a potential Harris running mate, has managed to keep the natural gas industry from getting too uneasy, although bruising some people in the process. Observers say he could help Harris navigate a tricky landscape.

It’s no small task: Any talk of a messing with natural gas production triggers angst from fossil fuel companies, legislators, and trade unions who say bans or pullbacks would threaten energy independence and much-needed jobs.

“I have serious thoughts about someone who would make those comments without realizing how particularly important the [fracking] process is to the state and U.S.,” State Sen. Gene Yaw (R., Lycoming), a frequent — and politically powerful — proponent of the industry said of Harris.

Yaw said fracking accounts for 90% of oil and gas extracted across the country.

“That’s a pretty significant impact for somebody to make an off-the-cuff comment without understanding how serious a ban would be,” Yaw said of Harris.

Yaw, a Republican, is chair of the Pennsylvania Senate’s Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, in a divided purple state where Democrats narrowly control the House and Republicans control the upper chamber. Shapiro has to thread the needle.

Dave Callahan, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, a trade association focused on unconventional shale development, said banning unconventional well drilling “would be would be nothing short of disastrous.” He said his group is bipartisan and advocates for policies for the industry, which he said directly or indirectly supports 100,000 workers.

“It would certainly be detrimental to consumers in terms of energy costs and could have an impact on our energy security and national security,” he said of a ban.

On Wednesday, Trump campaigned in Harrisburg and vowed to end what he called the “war on fracking” that would “demolish” jobs in Pennsylvania.

“Look, if they get in, your state is screwed … you guys are screwed … but I will never let that happen,” Trump said.

However, the Biden administration, while it has pushed for renewable energy, never aligned with calls for fracking bans, issuing almost 50% more permits to drill for oil and natural gas on federal land than that of when Trump was president, and oil and gas production in the U.S. has grown each year, according to E & E News. Harris has not pushed back on that position as Biden’s vice president.

Further, the administration also created seven hubs around the nation to produce hydrogen fuel. The MACH2 hub would be in the Philly region and produce hydrogen through renewable energy sources. But the ARCH2 hub spanning West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, would produce hydrogen through a process using natural gas, angering environmentalists who claim its just a hidden gift to the fossil fuel industry.

Shapiro has learned to navigate the tricky politics surrounding fracking, even as environmentalists lament methane emissions, continued drilling, polluted well water, pipeline leaks, abandoned wells and climate change all associated with fossil fuels.

David Hess, a former secretary Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, who runs an influential environmental blog, credits Shapiro with two climate and energy proposals known as PRESS and PACER, environmental justice initiatives, and finding more resources for the DEP. As a result, he’s helped give environmentalists some wins, while not raising too much ire in the energy industry.

PRESS would raise targets for renewable energy but includes nuclear power, fusion, and cleaner forms of natural gas. PACER would calculate a Pennsylvania-specific cap on carbon emissions.

“I think generally he’s given high marks for that,” Hess said. “He walked a very narrow path because he also wanted to attract union support for those proposals. Unions haven’t come out vehemently opposed to them.”

David Masur, executive director of the nonprofit PennEnvironment, an advocacy group, doesn’t always agree with Shapiro but says the governor has learned to walk a tight path.

Masur cites a scathing 2020 grand jury report led by Shapiro, state attorney general at the time, on the fracking industry. Grand jurors issued eight recommendations to address health and safety issues caused by hydraulic fracturing.

While supportive of the report, Masur notes that none of the recommendations has been carried out. Some are not under Shapiro’s control as governor, Masur notes, and some could be.

That’s left Shapiro open to criticism from groups such as the Philly-based Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania, which released a statement last week saying Shapiro “failed to enact any of the recommendations put forth by the grand jury that he had previously promoted. He no longer publicly discusses the public health danger of the fossil fuel industry in the state.”

The group accused Shapiro of making “dangerous side deals with fossil fuel companies.”

In 2022, Houston-based Coterra Energy Inc. pleaded no contest to allowing methane to leak into Dimock’s aquifer in Susquehanna County.

The state Department of Environmental Protection had long kept a moratorium on gas production in Dimock, where fracking had split the town since at least 2008. Then, in 2022, the DEP lifted the moratorium, allowing more drilling and angering some residents.

Drilling continues under Shapiro, who took office in 2023 and campaigned on more industry oversight.

“I know he’s claiming to be for a clean, green Pennsylvania, but from my personal experience, I don’t see it,” said Victoria Switzer, a resident of Dimock who wants Harris to pick a different running mate. “I don’t see the truth in that. I have a different story to tell.”

Inquirer staff writer Fallon Roth contributed to this article.