Trump indicates towns, states should be able to ban fracking
NEW @realDonaldTrump: "if a municipality or state wants to ban fracking, I can understand that." #COpolitics #9NEWS pic.twitter.com/iPHHw3Szob
— Brandon Rittiman (@BrandonRittiman) July 29, 2016
Donald Trump seemed to support state and local bans on fracking in a Colorado interview Friday.
In a departure from the usual position of Republicans and the wishes of the oil and natural gas industry, the GOP nominee for president said he thinks voters should be able to ban fracking at the state and local level, despite his personal support for the practice.
{mosads}“I’m in favor of fracking, but I think that voters should have a big say in it,” Trump told Denver television station KUSA in an interview, a portion of which was posted Friday. “I mean, there’s some areas, maybe, they don’t want to have fracking. And I think if the voters are voting for it, that’s up to them.”
He went on to say that while fracking is needed, “if a municipality or a state wants to ban fracking, I can understand that.”
Republicans around the country have fought fiercely against local and state fracking bans.
Localities in both Texas and Colorado have passed bans on fracking within their boundaries. Texas’ legislature voted last year to prevent local fracking bans, and Colorado’s highest court ruled this year that that state’s laws prohibit such bans.
Republicans in New York tried for years to get that state to allow fracking, but Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) banned it in 2014.
Trump in April criticized New York’s fracking ban.
“It’s just so incredible and we never took advantage,” he told a radio station at the time, according to the Journal News.
Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton said in a March debate that local and state governments should be allowed to block fracking within their borders.
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