Biden doesn’t support a ban on fracking: Sen. Bob Casey

good to have you this event in Pennsylvania underscores yet another uh reminder of how important Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes are um and I’m just wondering I post the debate and the dust-up over what Joe Biden was saying about eventually phasing out up to the oil industry I know he’s put it back to 2050 but between that and confusion on fracking the president was pouncing on the thing this guy wants to kill those jobs in states like yours um what do you think of this as an issue is it resonating with Pennsylvanians

well, Neil, I think the record’s pretty clear I think it’s clear from what joe Biden has said over and over again and what I know to be the truth which is he doesn’t support a ban on fracking but what he wants to do is make sure that we do it the way that it should be done like it’s done in Pennsylvania where it’s done in compliance with environmental regulations and rules so you’re not polluting people’s water their groundwater their drinking water and polluting the environment but I think that record is pretty clear I know the president’s been trying to muddy the water not to overuse the analogy but I think it I think it’s pretty clear to people and I think at the same time there are a lot of people in our state that know that we’ve gotta confront the challenge of climate change and deal with it and I think that’s uh that’s what he says senator when he says senator I want to transition from the oil industry and try to clarify that I said I’ve always said

I don’t know what’s surprising people um you obviously have a big energy fracking state um are they all on board with the notion that we are going to transition away from that if I’m a young worker and I’m looking for a job in that industry and I I’m hearing a potential president say that it’s going to start phasing out it doesn’t seem to be much of a future in it so I might look elsewhere right I think there’s a future because in our state uh fracking not only provides an opportunity for job growth and continued stability in the job market and a lot of employment but it also makes us less dependent on uh middle east oil so it’s been a great benefit both in an energy sense as well as the job sense but joe biden’s going to go to work hard to protect the environment and make sure that we still have those jobs that uh that come from gas

extraction but Neil I think the no I understand that but do you think he also addressed senator the notion of taking away subsidies up for the industry I mean to hear that in a state like yours or support for an industry that’s such a big employer i guess what I’m asking is is that going to hurt him in Pennsylvania are people going to hear that and say look I know he’s you know low emission energy and all that I know he is for cleaner fuels and all that I just didn’t know you know how anti he was all the stuff that we’re doing what do you say to them no look Neil I think it’s it’s pretty clear and most people in Pennsylvania are concerned about two fundamental issues right the virus and jobs in the economy both of which are interrelated you can’t we can’t recover fully until we tackle

the virus that’s why the difference between the candidates in the presence so does that have a virus plan no plan to tackle the virus no plan to create good paying jobs he’s good joe biden’s going to be in luzerne county today that county right now as of the month of uh just the last monthly number 18 000 people out of work 12 percent unemployment and and almost 28 000 people lose their health care if they get their way on destroying the affordable care act so when when people in luzerne county or northeastern pennsylvania are statewide are thinking about the election they’re thinking about two things tackle the virus and and have a jobs plan joe biden’s got both and i think that’s why he’s ahead all right it might be and you’re quite right we haven’t seen any polls post his comments in the debate here but if you’re looking at lazarin county i guess there’s 12 percent unemployment rate you allude to senator it could be a lot worse um if if the the energy industry in your state in that county is walloped right i mean how does he address

that what do you think he does but Neil that unemployment rate in Luzerne county in Pennsylvania and America could be a lot better if the president got serious about tackling the virus I have one question for the president on the virus you have to wonder would Donald trump have gotten the coronavirus if president trump did a better job tackling the virus we’ve got us we need a strategy Neil to put this virus behind us we should be ahead on that and we should be further down the road of creating millions of good-paying jobs 160 countries have it right I mean the president of Poland was just diagnosed tested positive of the virus right now right as was the leader the prime minister of Britain not too long ago so it’s right it seems to have certainly reckless abandon when it comes to picking and choosing where it targets and who it targets is across the globe so can you really blame

the president um for that especially when we look at death rates which is tragically a metric you should consider uh per 100 in the u.s is 11th is used 11th on that list i’m not minimizing the debts i’m not minimizing hospitalizations i’m not minimizing everything that’s happened but on a per capita basis there are countries on this planet a halo of a lot of worse no but neil i think here here are the important numbers on death deaths and cases four in 20 we’ve got four percent of the world’s population we’ve got 19 or 20 percent of the deaths that that number has been pretty steady and a little bit higher 20 or 21 percent of the cases in the world just on that alone it’s clear that we are not where we need to be i look i live in northeastern pennsylvania one county over from luzarn county i’m in lackawanna our case numbers are going up in in these counties going up statewide we have to tackle the virus and it would be great for the country if the president wore a mask all the time i could give him one that says vote on it and and have it have a strategy talk about tackling this virus every day everyone would be better off he could affect the behavior of tens of millions of people and we know if more people are wearing masks more people are taking it seriously we can put the virus behind us and fully recover all right we’ll see what happens senator casey thank you for taking the time uh beautiful state of pennsylvania