Protecting American Energy Production Act

HR 26/SR ??

Author

Dusty Wilson
February 11, 2025

After taking a week off from voting, the House returned to consider a whole new batch of laws. Amongst a bunch of very normal bills is the extremely succinct Protecting American Energy Production Act.

What is this bill?

The bill is barely over a page long and would ban the President’s ability to call for a moratorium on hydraulic fracking.

First of all, what even is fracking? To quote Wikipedia, who quoted a paper by Luca Gandossi and Carlo Coltri of the European Commission:

“Hydraulic fracturing is a well stimulation technique involving the fracturing of formations in bedrock by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the high-pressure injection of "fracking fluid" (primarily water, containing sand or other proppants suspended with the aid of thickening agents) into a wellbore to create cracks in the deep rock formations through which natural gas, petroleum, and brine will flow more freely. When the hydraulic pressure is removed from the well, small grains of hydraulic fracturing proppants (either sand or aluminium oxide) hold the fractures open.”

Fracking to coax gas and oil out of the ground is so popular that the Department of Energy found that 95% of drilling operations on land use this technique. As such, it would put the fossil fuel industry into an immediate bind if it was outright banned.

That said, is banning fracking something that the president can even do? The answer is a resounding sort of. Leah Sarnoff wrote for ABC News that it depends on if the drilling lease is on federal land. If it’s on private land, the President can’t unilaterally ban fracking. However, if it’s on the 24% of land that is federally owned, then it falls under purview of the President.

Why is this bill fascist?

Initially, I was set to ignore this bill. After all, to call a bill fascist when it actively reduces the amount of power the President can wield feels inaccurate at best and hyperbolic at worst. That said, I came across a paper from Shashi Kant Yadav, a lawyer and professor at Northumbria University, that made a compelling argument that all pro-fracking legislation falls under the banner of fascist. In his 2020 paper, Trump Backs Fracking Over Science, Yadav stated:

“[Trump’s] narrative on defending fracking is strikingly similar to Umberto Eco’s description of Fascism. Eco explained in 1994 how fascist leaders "disdain scientific temperaments" for promoting disagreement. Fascism, Eco argued, thrives on "heroic nationalism" and gains mass support by capitalizing on the aspirations of the middle-income group citizens and by floating international conspiracies against their country."

Trump claims that by “protecting” fracking he continues to put America first and will guard United States national security through energy independence (heroic nationalism).

Further his October 31 press release asserts that fracking specifically benefits middle-income and low-income group citizens by providing them fixed income (aspirations of the middle class). In the final presidential debate, Trump declared that fracking makes the US energy “independent” and the international community is conspiring against America by looting its middle class through climate change commitments under the Paris Accord.”

Trump’s longstanding hatred of Native Americans must also be considered. A number of reservations border federal land that has been opened up to fracking and a laundry list of environmental damages linked to fracking, such as poisoned drinking water, air pollution, increased risk of lung cancer, & earthquakes constantly put these communities at great risk. Despite the well proven adverse side effects of fracking, the Trump admin in 2021 made a last minute push to expand fracking on land that would put tribal drinking water at immediate risk.

The fact that Native communities have been a target of Trump for so long only highlights the fascistic motivation behind a law that makes it harder to protect marginalized communities. Or more simply, a bill like this celebrates the hatred of diversity and gifts fascists with a new tool to hurt others for the supposed benefit of the in-group.

Finally, this bill only notes that a President can’t call a moratorium on federal fracking. The President still possesses the hypothetical right to require all federal drilling to employ fracking. Frankly, if the bill removed all Presidential power on the matter, that would probably be enough to remove any fascistic intent. But by making it harder to fight against a practice that Trump supports, the bill becomes an example of addition by subtraction.

Which Dems voted for it?

Did it pass?

  • Passed the House on 2/7/25 by a vote of 226-118