Fracking poll: More, but not too many, regulations supported

(The Center Square) — Pennsylvanians remain split about the future of fracking, but most of them are open to stronger regulations for air monitoring, information disclosure and setbacks.

So reveals a poll from the Ohio River Valley Institute and Upswing Research & Strategy, a progressive research firm, who surveyed 700 likely voters in Pennsylvania.

“Voters have deep concerns about air and water pollution and broadly support increased regulations on the fracking industry,” Upswing noted in its survey memo. “Voters also view renewable energy sectors more favorably than fracking, coal, and the oil and gas industry.”

Requiring fracking companies to disclose all chemicals used in the process garnered 94% support; requiring “safer transportation of fracking waste” got 93%; setting up more air monitors near wells had 92% support; and expanding setback distances from schools and hospitals had 90%.

Classifying fracking fluids as hazardous earned 80% support, while reducing restrictions on fracking companies got 50% support — but 58% were opposed to banning fracking altogether.

“Pennsylvanians are deeply ambivalent about fracking. They see and experience the noise and pollution. They fear for their health and the health of their families,” Sean O’Leary, senior researcher with the Ohio River Valley Institute, said in a press release. “And were it not for the barrage of unfounded claims from state policymakers that the industry is an engine for jobs, opposition would be even greater.”

The split thinking on fracking has existed since the shale gas boom hit Pennsylvania in the late. 2000s. Other polls have found a narrow plurality support fracking — but support has grown, up almost 10 percentage points since 2012.

Support can also move depending on what questions are asked. When ORVI/Upswing Research asked about fracking, it garnered only 44% support. But when they asked about natural gas, it garnered 75% support.

When asked whether they would support spending taxpayer dollars on wind and solar development, 84% of voters supported subsidies; but fracking and pipeline development also gained 62% support.

The natural gas industry emphasized the benefits of fracking and the regulatory oversight it already works under.

"Pennsylvanians want more domestically produced natural gas because it is affordable, clean and reliable,” Marcellus Shale Coalition President David Callahan said. “The resource, developed under one of the most stringent regulatory frameworks in the country — directed by more than fifty permit, regulation and technical guidance documents — allows Pennsylvania operators to lead in environmental performance, energy production and job creation. It is for these reasons why there is such widespread, bipartisan support for the natural gas industry in this battleground state."

The farther away one gets from fracking, the more skeptical someone was of its benefits.

The closer Pennsylvanians lived to the fracking industry, the more they supported it. In “Outer Pittsburgh,” fracking had 69% support (compared to 50% support in Allegheny County). Only 31% of Philadelphia County respondents supported fracking, and 43% in the Lehigh Valley.

While 42% of respondents thought fracking should be phased out “as soon as possible due to potential health risks,” 58% wanted to encourage fracking “to provide a cheaper source of energy.” Similarly, 41% saw fracking as “major contributor” to climate change, but 59% saw fracking as “an important part of the transition to clean energy.”

The rise of natural gas and the decline of coal has driven down Pennsylvania’s carbon dioxide emissions by 42% since 2008.

The Ohio River Valley Institute has warned that the fracking industry did not deliver on its promises of a jobs boom and criticized the heavily subsidized Shell ethane cracker plant in Beaver County.

The Marcellus Shale Coalition argued that emissions reductions (including dramatic declines in nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides) has meant hundreds of billions of dollars in public health benefits and hundreds of millions of dollars in savings from the drop in natural gas prices between 2022-23.