When Donald Trump held a rally in rural Pennsylvania last week, he hit familiar themes: immigration, his legal woes and rising prices. But he got his loudest cheers when he promised to lift Joe Biden’s ban on new natural gas exports, highlighting the unpopularity of the policy in a critical swing state.
The White House’s decision to pause approvals for new liquefied natural gas projects has angered the shale gas industry, a big employer in Pennsylvania. It has also raised concerns among local Democrats, who warn a policy designed to appeal to young climate-conscious voters could harm Biden’s campaign in a state that produces a fifth of America’s natural gas.
“I’m pretty tired of constantly worrying that somebody in Washington DC makes a decision that’s going to impact my family in Fayette county,” said Nick Staffieri, a waste management team leader at EQT Corporation, the largest natural gas producer in the US.
“To see us potentially pause LNG for political purposes, it’s disheartening, really disheartening.”
The electoral importance of Pennsylvania is illustrated by the fact that Biden spent three days in the state this week. On Wednesday he vowed to keep US Steel in American ownership, and called for higher tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminium imports in a bid to shore up support with unions.
Hillary Clinton lost to Trump in Pennsylvania in 2016 by fewer than 45,000 votes, when large numbers of working class voters who traditionally voted Democrat backed the Republican candidate. Biden, who was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, defeated Trump in the state in 2020 by just over 80,000 votes, or about 1 percentage point.
Blue-collar voters will once again play an important role in November, with opinion polls showing Biden with a very slight lead over Trump in the state. And there are signs the pause on LNG approvals and other environmental laws buffeting the gas industry are creating a sour mood among its 72,000 workers in Pennsylvania.
Like many of the tens of thousands of workers in the shale industry, Staffieri has first-hand experience of the boom-bust nature of the sector. In 2020 he and his wife, who also works in the Pennsylvania gas industry, were laid off during the pandemic.
“We went from two very wholesome salaries to zero,” said Staffieri, who has used his salary to upgrade a family farm.
The local economy has since bounced back and the jobless rate of 3.4 per cent is near record lows. But industry and trade union leaders worry the LNG pause risks destabilising the gas industry, which is facing challenges linked to a supply glut that has caused prices to crash to three-year lows.
Producers EQT and Chesapeake are throttling back production and some of the best producing wells in Pennsylvania have been temporarily idled.
“If we are not building energy infrastructure and pipelines, I mean, that definitely has to hurt labour, jobs, pipeliners, construction and union jobs,” said Shawn Steffee, business agent at the Boilermakers Local 154 trade union in Pittsburgh.
Trade unions played an important role in galvanising their members to support Biden in 2020. In return, he has supported pro-union industrial policies that helped them reverse decades of membership decline in Pennsylvania last year.
Union leaders say Biden has done more for their movement than any previous president but warn his policies targeting the gas industry could cause workers to switch allegiance to Trump.
“My members are going to vote with their pocketbook and the economy,” said Steffee.
Republican politicians in Pennsylvania have seized on the LNG cessation, which resonates with a rural constituency of landowners, gas and coal workers who have overwhelmingly backed Trump in recent presidential elections.
“Energy is a huge opportunity for America and a huge opportunity for Pennsylvania and I think it’s just been mishandled,” said David McCormick, the former Bridgewater boss who is the Republican US Senate candidate in Pennsylvania.
During a visit to Lackawanna College’s School of Petroleum & Natural Gas in the small town of Tunkhannock near Scranton, McCormick alleged Biden had perpetrated “a war on energy” that has undermined US security.
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