To my Dem friends,
I’m going to be really blunt about John Fetterman & Governor Wolf: They have to deal with the fracking industry in a responsible way. Fetterman might win because no one is paying attention, but Wolf…if he doesn’t clean up his shop and commit to a modern energy economy…he’s toast.
The people who voted Wolf into office thought he’d stand up to the fracking industry and move ahead on clean and renewable energy. There have been a couple of pittance signs: A change to the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard for solar (pic with me below from the signing statement)
. But that was so easy no one could object to it. Wolf protected state parks from fracking after Corbett had opened them up, one of the most unpopular things Corbett did as governor. Wolf’s put some methane rules into place. But they are moving glacially.
. But that was so easy no one could object to it. Wolf protected state parks from fracking after Corbett had opened them up, one of the most unpopular things Corbett did as governor. Wolf’s put some methane rules into place. But they are moving glacially.The people who bird dogged Wolf before will make his re-election hell. Absolute hell. I promise it.
When I was on the floor of the Democratic National Convention as a Sanders delegate, I remember feeling a range of things about the anti-Clinton sentiment among some Sanders delegates (pic below). They thought she was a huge sellout. She arguably lost the election because of it. If you think Wolf isn’t vulnerable to the same, you have another thing coming. Fetterman says he wants to be a “progressive backstop” to Wolf. On this matter, he’s been about as supportive of a sane energy future as Wolf has. Mostly silent with a sprinkle of good things and general support of the fracking industry. The same energy that kept progressives from supporting Clinton will do the same to Wolf. They think Wolf is a sellout.
If the Clinton loss has taught us anything, it’s that Dems cannot expect people to vote just because of judges, abortion, or public education. The environmental left and independents who are furious about the fracking industry, who are going to court, whose children are under gag orders, whose kids wake up with nose bleeds and rashes, who know that utility scale solar in Pennsylvania is already performing at parity with natural gas…they will punish Wolf and Fetterman at the ballot box. I have no doubt about this.
They are my friends. Their property is being attacked by pipeline companies. They are farmers with property that neighbors well pads. They are peaceful country people who like quiet roads. They live near where the ethane cracker cancer plumes will appear near Pittsburgh. They are mothers and grandmothers who don’t want to live under a cancer-causing security state apparatus when they are supposed to live in the land of the free. It’s not a joke. They are thousands and thousands of people who are owed dignity and a safe place to live.
And they’ve gotten…
They will vote for a third party or not vote at all. At the end of the day, the difference between a status quo Democrat and a climate-denying Republican is marginal to them.
So if Wolf and Fetterman want to win the ground game, they have to win on health and energy. If they alienate sane people who want nothing more than to protect what they love, they’re done.
Peter Walks for Democracy 