Fact Checking the Pennsylvania Senate Candidates’ Debate Claims on Energy

If there was a theme of the first debate between Pennsylvania’s candidates for U.S. Senate, it would be lying. The incumbent, Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, and the challenger, Republican Dave McCormick, each accused the other of spreading misinformation about their records. Casey said McCormick has been lying about where he lives, and McCormick touted a website created by his campaign called “CaseyLies.com.”

As in the presidential debate, energy issues were in the spotlight, with the candidates tackling questions about fracking, nuclear power and the potential sale of the Pennsylvania-based U.S. Steel to the Japanese company Nippon Steel.

There was no real-time fact-checking by the moderator during the rapid-fire debate. So we’ve fact-checked some of the most important claims made by both candidates about energy and the environment.

McCormick: “We constrained our natural resources, particularly fracking. … And essentially, what’s happened is we’ve lost our ability to be energy dominant.” 

Verdict: False

When the candidates were asked how they would support the natural gas industry in Pennsylvania while protecting the environment, McCormick said his opponent had “constrained our natural resources” while voting for “the most idiotic energy policy I’ve seen,” which had caused Pennsylvania to lose its “ability to be energy dominant.” McCormick didn’t specify which policy he meant, but Pennsylvania’s natural gas production is 43 times higher today than it was when Casey was first elected to the Senate in 2006. Natural gas production in the U.S. has only continued to grow under the Biden administration, surpassing even the output produced during the Trump administration.

Casey: McCormick “has been lying about my position on fracking. I voted against a fracking ban.”  

Verdict: True

Despite McCormick’s insistence that Casey has “flip-flopped” on this issue like the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, Casey has always supported fracking. It’s also true that he voted against a fracking ban in 2021, one of only a handful a Democratic senators to do so. 

At one point, McCormick said Casey had “contributed to the red tape that essentially bans fracking without actually banning fracking.” He may have been referring to Casey’s cosponsoring of a bill called the FRAC Act, or the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act, which would have required drillers to disclose the chemicals they use during the fracking process, closing a long-controversial loophole that makes it difficult to trace or study the impacts of fracking on water supplies. It would also have meant that unconventional drillers would be governed by the Safe Drinking Water Act. 

The industry trade group the American Petroleum Institute has argued that the FRAC Act would harm the natural gas industry and the U.S. economy if it were to pass. A version of the bill introduced in 2017 never made it out of committee.

Casey says he supports “responsible fracking that is regulated and closely monitored to protect our communities.”

Casey: “I supported legislation just two years ago that made the greatest investment in clean energy in American history, allowing us to combat climate change, and at the same time, have supported an all-the-above energy strategy for Pennsylvania.” 

Verdict: True

Casey has been a proponent of President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which the Department of Energy said in 2022 “makes the single largest investment in climate and energy in American history.” 

Casey has also long supported an “all of the above” energy policy that includes investing in renewable energy sources as well as continuing to support the fossil fuel industry. The IRA itself contains pro-fossil fuel measures, like auctions for oil and gas leases on federal lands.

McCormick: “On the LNG export ban that President Biden put in place, you know what he did to stop that? He sent a stern letter.” 

Verdict: True

In February, Casey and Pennsylvania’s other Democratic senator, John Fetterman, rebuked the Biden administration for its pause on liquified natural gas exports, citing “concerns about the long-term impacts that this pause will have on the thousands of jobs in Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry.” Environmental groups criticized Casey and Fetterman for the statement, saying the senators were ignoring the climate impacts of LNG exports.

McCormick: “What I’m not in favor of is hundreds of billions of dollars of subsidies for clean energy projects that are driving inflation across our economy and across our country and making us more dependent on China.”  

Verdict: False

While there is little evidence so far that the Inflation Reduction Act has lived up to its name and reduced inflation in the United States, the law is also not a significant cause of inflation. A preliminary economic study of the law conducted by the University of Pennsylvania in 2022 indicated “low confidence that the legislation will have any impact on inflation.” 

Economists say increasing inflation after 2020 was largely caused by the after-effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, including changes in consumer behavior, demand and supply-chain issues. Since hitting a peak of 9.1 percent in 2022, inflation in the U.S. has fallen to 2.9 percent as of July, slightly above the 2 percent rate that was typical before the pandemic.

The IRA is not “making us more dependent on China.” One of the goals of the law is to invest in the domestic manufacturing of clean energy technologies. That’s meant to help the U.S. catch up to China when it comes to making essential components of the energy transition, like solar panels and the batteries used in electric vehicles. 

Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said in 2022 that the law’s purpose was in part to “immediately increase energy production to lower energy costs and invest in domestic manufacturing supply chains, creating jobs in North America while reducing our reliance on China.”

McCormick: “He’s been for a cap and trade program that would have set up prices. He’s for a regional gas initiative that would have raised prices.” 

Verdict: Partially true

In 2019, Casey cosponsored a bill called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act, which would have established an Office of Regional Greenhouse Gas Reduction Programs within the Environmental Protection Agency. The office would have supported cap and trade programs like the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, which has been controversial in Pennsylvania. RGGI works to lower emissions from power plants by setting a price for each ton of carbon dioxide emitted. 

Analysis from the University of Pennsylvania’s Kleinman Center for Energy Policy showed that joining RGGI would have “minimal to no impact on electricity rates.” RGGI currently has 10 member states: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.

McCormick: “U.S. Steel was actually going to invest billions of dollars in the Mon Valley a few years ago, and instead, it took a new plant to Arkansas. And the reason it took a new plant to Arkansas was because the Allegheny County government blocked the new project on environmental grounds.” 

Verdict: Mostly false

The Allegheny County government did not “block” U.S. Steel’s plans to invest $1 billion in its steelmaking facilities in the Mon Valley, a region outside Pittsburgh. In fact, county officials were shocked by the company’s 2021 decision to change its plans. The county executive at the time, Rich Fitzgerald, said he was “blindsided” and that he had supported the project “since day one.”

U.S. Steel CEO David Burritt blamed delays in permitting caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, saying the wait allowed the company to “expand our understanding of steelmaking’s future in a rapidly decarbonizing world.” The Mon Valley facilities are coal-based, and just a month before announcing its investment in Arkansas, to be built with electric arc furnaces, U.S. Steel had committed to reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Fitzgerald also responded to accusations that permitting delays led to U.S. Steel’s decision. He said the health department, which issues permits, had “moved as expeditiously as possible” and said U.S. Steel had paused the project in 2020, the year before, and “never reactivated it.”

In 2022, the United Steelworkers, the union representing workers at U.S. Steel, accused the company of “running away” from our “communities, jobs and Union,” citing the fact that the Arkansas project was at a non-union site.