US ELECTIONS: Environmental activists, Trump team pull at Biden over fossil fuel stance

US presidential candidate Joe Biden is fending off pressure from both the Trump campaign and some environmental activists on his stance on fossil fuels, as the 2020 presidential race turns the final corner.

A coalition of 145 mostly grassroot groups wrote to Biden Sept. 1 to thank him for his "bold plans" to combat the climate crisis, but also urged him to promise to ban people with links to the fossil fuel sector from his campaign, transition team and his administration.

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The pressure from progressive groups comes as Biden simultaneously fights back against assertions from Trump allies in Pennsylvania that the former vice president would ban hydraulic fracturing and wipe out jobs the oil and gas industry has brought to the battleground state.

During a campaign speech in Pittsburgh Aug. 31, Biden pushed back on Trump's team's assertions.

Fracking stance

"I am not banning fracking. Let me say that again. I am not banning fracking. No matter how many times Donald Trump lies about me, the future, that's what this is all about," he said.

Instead, he promised to build the economy back better through investments in roads, bridges, solar rays, windmills, and deploying a "clean energy strategy that has a place for energy workers right here in western Pennsylvania."

In mid-August, Biden also pressed TV stations in Pennsylvania to pull an ad from pro-Trump super PAC America First Action claiming Biden plans to eliminate fracking and kill up to 600,000 jobs.

A letter from the Biden team Aug. 17 argued the ad misstated the candidate's policy, which favors a ban only on new oil and gas permits on federal land. A decision not to issue new permits on federal land would have no effect on permits that have already been issued, the Biden campaign's deputy general counsel wrote.

The Trump campaign and Republican officials in turn have been circulating clips from the primary when Biden's public statements at times edged closer to a ban.

When asked during one primary debate whether there would be any place in his administration for fossil fuels, "including coal and fracking," his reply was, "No, we would work it out, we would make sure it's eliminated and no more subsidies for either one of those."

Progressive pitch

Still, Biden's current stance has left those who want to eliminate fossil fuels pressing for more commitments.

The coalition of 145 groups wrote to Biden to say a promise from him to exclude people with fossil fuel industry ties from his team or as advisers would help assuage concern about his climate commitments raised when Democrats kept a call to end fossil fuel subsidies out of their platform in August.

"This critical need to advance climate and environmental justice is why we are concerned by initial reports that people with ties to fossil fuel interests have been advising your campaign and may be angling for roles in your administration," the groups wrote.

"People who left government to serve on a fossil fuel industry board, enrich themselves as oil and gas advisers, receive funding from fossil fuel companies to espouse reasonable climate positions, or work with industry front groups should have no role in a Biden administration or campaign."

The groups, including Oil Change USA, have set sights on keeping out some former Obama administration officials, including former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, who they fear are open to continued use of fossil fuels as part of a transition to a low carbon energy system.

The effort reflects a view that personnel could be key to how multiple important decisions ultimately play out effecting the energy sector.

Organizations that signed on included youth and climate groups, among others. Large national environmental groups along the lines of the Sierra Club and Natural Resource Defense Council were not included, although Greenpeace and Public Citizen did sign on.

Strongly backing Biden, the Sierra Club has called the 2020 contest the "most consequential election of our lifetime" and promised to "mobilize its members and supporters like never before to elect a Biden-Harris administration."