Energy

Hillary Supported Fracking In Africa, Now Opposes It In US

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Andrew Follett Energy and Science Reporter
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Hillary Clinton was a major force behind bringing fracking to African countries during her tenure as Secretary of State, although she now opposes fracking in the United States.

Clinton made promoting fracking for natural gas in other countries a big priority during her tenure as Secretary of State. “The United States will promote the use of shale gas,” she said then.

Clinton’s State Department helped advise African and other world leaders on the benefits of fracking, connected them with American energy experts, and organized visits to drilling sites in the United States to make the it a role model for fracking around the world.

The State Department hosted several conferences on fracking in other countries during Clinton’s tenure, and sent U.S. experts to help foreign officials develop fracking programs. State’s fracking program continued under Secretary of State John Kerry, and is known as the Unconventional Gas Technical Engagement Program.

Much of the fracking proposed by the State Department would have been done on public lands, but Clinton now supports phasing out fracking on public lands in the United States.

The Hillary Clinton campaign immediately hung up on the Daily Caller News Foundation when contacted for comment by phone.

“Now, I know that in some places it’s controversial,” Clinton said in 2010, “But natural gas is the cleanest fossil fuel available for power generation today, and a number of countries in the Americas may have shale gas resources. If developed, shale gas could make an important contribution to our region’s energy supply, just as it does now for the United States.”

Excerpts from Hillary Clinton’s released emails reveal she influenced energy policy in Mexico as Secretary of State, and pushed for fracking before she resigned in 2013. A fully redacted email reveals Clinton hired David Goldwyn as “State Department International Energy Coordinator/Diplomat-At-Large.” Goldwyn eventually became the head of the State Department’s Bureau of Energy Resources, where he helped Clinton “sell fracking to the world.”

In 2012, Clinton instructed all U.S. embassies to “pursue more outreach to private sector energy partners.” Many of these partners provided financial support to her political campaigns. Clinton’s campaign even hired a former TransCanada lobbyist, the company behind the Keystone XL pipeline, as a consultant.

The energy and natural resource industry contributed $1,784,943 to Clinton or PACs that supported her according to Federal Election Commission data aggregated by The Center For Responsive Politics.

African and other countries interested in fracking for oil and natural gas received considerable support from the U.S. government, including the State Department during Clinton’s tenure. U.S. support caused policy changes across the African continent. South Africa, for example, lifted its moratorium on fracking in 2012 after the State Department, the U.S. Export-Import Bank and the U.S. Geological Survey assisted in solving technical and financial problems with drilling in the country.

Clinton heavily supported the Export-Import Bank of the United States. During her tenure, the Bank spent $3 billion in 2009 alone for hundreds of miles of natural gas pipeline in other countries while financing other huge fracking projects over the last several years in South Africa and in other countries like Poland.

The Bank also spent billions financing Liquid Natural Gas facilities and other conventional energy sources in Africa over the objections of environmental groups. When asked if she would revive the Bank in October, Hillary Clinton said it was a “no-brainer.”

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