CNBC Host Confronts Rep. Jan Schakowsky On Her Past Vote To Ban Fracking

CNBC host Joe Kernen confronted Democratic Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky on her vote to ban fracking as prices surge at the pump while on ‘Squawk Box’ Wednesday.

Kernen noted how Democratic California Rep. Ro Khanna recently questioned Mike Wirth of Chevron in October as to whether he is “embarrassed as an American company that your production is going up while European counterparts are going down?'”

Wirth reportedly said he was proud of the company, prompting Khanna to ask whether Wirth would “commit right now to matching your European counterparts in reducing the production of oil,” according to Kernen.

Khanna recently said the U.S. should start drilling for more oil in light of the Ukraine crisis.

“In the short term, yes, we need domestic increase in oil production,” Khanna told Bloomberg March 16. “And that obviously is going to not be consistent in the very short term with climate aspirations.”

One day later, Khanna called for sweeping bans on federal oil and gas leasing.

“So it hasn’t even been a year, many members of Congress, 26 members of the House, I don’t know if you’re one of them, voted to try to ban fracking as well as oil and natural gas exports,” Kernen continued. “Were you one of the 26 House Democrats that voted to ban fracking as well as oil and gas production?”

“The question is what are the oil companies doing,” Schakowsky said as Kernen laughed.  “Yes, I am against fracking, I think it’s a real problem.”

Kernen then interjected asking whether she was one of the 26 members of the House that tried to ban fracking.

“The question is is that the oil companies made a decision rather, in this crisis right now, to raise the cost, to gouge the consumers in some ways,” Schakowsky continued, noting oil companies had the option to “increase their ability right now, not to have to frack, not to have to drill more,” but could simply raise the amount of gas.

“Congresswoman, we’ve all seen what’s happened to the prices of crude oil around the world, WTI, or Ice Brent, the president talked about it a lot and said ‘it’s nothing we did, it’s because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine that sent the oil prices up above $100 a barrel.’ So if the president can point to what’s actually causing it, why you are saying it’s the oil company? Is it the oil company’s fault we’re over 100 or which is it? Russia’s fault or the oil company’s fault?” Kernen asked.

Schakowsky again said oil companies could be producing more and alleged oil companies are engaging in “war profiteering … right now.” She is calling for an extension to pandemic-related legislation to prevent price gouging. (RELATED: Biden Admin’s Own Study Confirms The Worst About The Left’s Climate Agenda)

The congresswoman then claimed oil companies are seeing “record-high profits,” to which Kernen jumped in and clarified “well, not all time. Only in the last seven years, and for 10 years the oil companies have been severely, have underperformed the rest of the S&P… so it’s not all time records.”

“Congresswoman, you’d have to admit that Democrats have tried to leave more hydrocarbons in the ground that’s been something for years now that has been – that’s not true, I just read what Congressman Khanna said,  ‘will you match Europe’s cut backs. Aren’t you embarrassed you’re producing so much oil?’ You know that’s where we were until about eight months ago.”

“You know, the oil companies have the capacity right now without having more uses, without doing more drilling to raise the amount of oil they’re producing right now and made a decision not to do that so that they could make more profits, so that they could raise their prices, so they could do stock buybacks, that is just a fact that this is the decision that they made. And right now at this moment when Americans are suffering right now at the pump and are really especially low-income people, the oil companies have made a decision,” Schakowsky said.