INDIANAPOLIS, Pa. – Former President Donald Trump vowed Monday to liberate Pennsylvania's energy sector if elected to a second term, promising to get workers in this key battleground state “pumping, fracturing, drilling and producing like never before.”
Trump, 78, made the pledge at a raucous rally in energy-rich western Pennsylvania, where, surrounded by dozens of hard-hatted supporters, he outlined his plans to drastically cut energy and electricity prices across the country.
“If you vote for me, I'll cut your energy and electricity bills in half within 12 months,” the Republican candidate said, referring to the rising cost of energy and electricity, which have risen by nearly 30% under the Harris-Biden administration, according to a recent Wall Street Journal analysis.
“We will lift the ban on natural gas exports, which makes it impossible to sell natural gas to many countries that desperately need it,” Trump promised.
“We have all of this, more than anyone else. [and] “We're not going to spend it,” the former president said of the nation's untapped oil and natural gas reserves. “I'm going to get Pennsylvania's energy workers pumping, fracturing, drilling and producing like never before.”
In his latest appeal to Keystone State voters, President Trump attacked Vice President Kamala Harris as “the candidate of the tax collector and Washington bureaucrats” and called himself “the candidate of the American worker.”
He slammed the various tax increase proposals from Democratic candidates, saying, “The biggest tax increase ever is a vicious attack on Pennsylvania's energy.”
“Just a few months ago, Kamala imposed a ban on natural gas exports,” Trump told the audience, referring to the Harris-Biden administration's suspension of some liquefied natural gas exports in January. Climate change concerns.
“This policy is significantly harming energy jobs in Pennsylvania,” he said.
Trump also rejected Harris' recent shift in stance on fracking, saying: “Someone here is [Harris] “If you're going to allow energy industries like fracking to continue, you should go see a psychiatrist and get your head checked right away.”
“Kamala has said dozens of times that she's going to ban fracking,” Trump reminded Pennsylvania voters, playing clips of the vice president touting “an end to fracking for good” on “The Tonight Show” with Jimmy Fallon in 2019.
Indiana County Republican Chairman Randy Degenkolb told the Post that Governor Harris’ initial opposition to fracking scared residents in a county that has “more shallow gas wells” than anywhere in Pennsylvania.
“We're an energy county,” Degenkolb said. “That's our history.”
“Our county was seriously scared,” he said of Harris' repeated calls to ban fracking.
“To us, that's a lie,” Degenkolb said of the vice president's recent change of policy.
In Indiana County, Trump won 66.1% of the vote in 2016 and the 45th president won 68.2% in 2020.
“Fracking is big in our area,” Kelsey Crispen, 33, a hospital worker from nearby Armstrong County, told The Washington Post after the rally.
“I don't believe a word that woman says,” she said of Harris' policy shift on fracking, noting that utility bills have increased “by hundreds of dollars” under the Harris-Biden administration.
“It hasn't slowed down at all,” Crispen said. “She had to quit cheer because we had to cut back on our budget.”
Her husband, Brad, a 43-year-old auto mechanic, said the fracking industry “thrived when Trump was president” and had a “trickle-down effect” on the local economy.
“It helps small towns,” he said of the state's booming energy economy in the western part of the state.
Harris leads Trump in Pennsylvania by just 0.7 percentage points, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls.
The state's crucial 19 electoral votes will be contested in November, the results of which could determine the winner of the election.
Regarding polls showing a close race in Pennsylvania, Trump said, “No way,” and added, “It's probably a lot closer than that.”
