WASHINGTON, D.C. - Fracking is fueling controversy in a key battleground state in the 2020 presidential race. From the campaign trail to Capitol Hill, lawmakers and advocates from both sides are now weighing in.

Some top Democrats, including presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, are calling for a total ban on fracking, also known as hydraulic fracturing. That is a common but controversial practice used by natural gas companies that has led to economic growth in Pennsylvania and other natural gas-rich states.

Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey fears the ban would destroy Pennsylvania’s economy in some regions of the state that have built themselves around the industry. The modern-day gold rush has increased gas production and led to cheaper natural gas prices for the American consumer. The ban, Toomey said, could raise fuel prices for all Americans.

“Natural gas has been terrific for our economy, for our country,” Toomey said. “We should continue to use this really, really safe, clean source of energy.”

Pennsylvania is the second largest natural gas producing state in the country behind Texas, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In all, Pennsylvania produced 20 percent of all U.S. natural gas in 2018.

The ban would result in 600,000 job losses and over $260 billion in lost revenue in Pennsylvania by 2025, according to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce/Global Energy Institute study released in late 2019.

“A fracking ban would be absolutely devastating for Pennsylvania,” Toomey said.

But not everyone agrees with Toomey, especially environmental advocates who have spent years lobbying for a fracking ban. Erie News Now recently spoke by phone with Danielle Fugere, the president of As You Sow, a California-based environmental advocacy group urging lawmakers to move away from fossil fuels, such as natural gas, toward a green energy economy.

“The demand for natural gas will decline over time, and it has to for us to avoid massive climate impacts,” Fugere said.

Fracking is the method used to extract gas deep within the earth. That has been a controversial practice over the years according to environmental experts because fracking has been linked to contaminated drinking water and led to other health risks.

An As You Sow report released this week addresses both the climate and economic risks of failing to shift America’s reliance on fossil fuels to cleaner energy. Among the findings: investment in new natural gas infrastructure is increasingly incompatible with a climate-stable future, according to a statement.

“Utilities clinging to business models that rely on fossil fuels are jeopardizing their ability to meet critical climate goals (including their own) and will miss out on opportunities to benefit from new technology advances,” Lila Holzman, As You Sow’s energy program manager, said in a statement.

On the campaign trail, Democrats’ proposed fracking ban has become controversial in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state in the 2020 presidential election. The issue has become similar to the so-called “war on coal” during the 2016 campaign. Four years ago, then-candidate Donald Trump flipped Pennsylvania from a traditionally Democratic stronghold to fertile Republican ground. In some of the key swing counties, energy was the driving factor. Luzerne County, the largest county in an area known as Pennsylvania’s Coal Region, supported Barack Obama by nearly five percent in 2012. In 2016, Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by nearly 20 percent.

In the thick of everything this election cycle is Republican Rep. Fred Keller, a Pennsylvania freshman who represents the state’s 12th Congressional District located in central and northern Pennsylvania. Up to 10 percent of all of the natural gas produced every day in the U.S. comes from Keller's district. The boom largely has been led by increased production in the Marcellus and Utica Shale wells throughout the commonwealth. That has saved the average Pennsylvanian about $1,100 per year in energy costs, Keller said, and it has also created job growth in certain areas of PA-12.

“In Susquehanna County, they actually tell you the number of people that are unemployed, not the percentage,” Keller said of the county that is home to 1,429 gas wells as of March 2019, according to FractTracker Alliance.

Susquehanna County’s unemployment rate was 4.9% in Jan. 2020, with approximately 1,000 residents unemployed, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry.

However, as the As You Sow report suggests, the surge of wells does come at an environmental cost. In 2011, a StateImpact Pennsylvania report found Susquehanna County also had the most gas well violations by Pennsylvania county with 795.

Keller strongly opposes the proposed fracking ban. He has invited Sanders and others to visit his district to speak with the families who would be impacted and learn more about the industry. So far, Keller hasn’t received a response.

“When you want to take that from them,” he said of the gas jobs, “I think you need to look them in the eye and tell them why you think you know better than the people who do those jobs every day.”