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Fracking shouldn’t be banned

Three Democratic candidates for president, and perhaps more, are hoping to gain votes by proposing all-out prohibitions on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, used in the oil and natural gas industries.

Sens. Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have all proposed the bans. Look for others to jump on the bandwagon.

Anything that hampers — or preferably, in the minds of some extremists, kills — any aspect of the fossil fuel industry appeals to a certain bloc of voters.

But Americans capable of and willing to think for themselves understand the utter and complete lack of reason in such positions.

Fracking is responsible for the new energy boom in America. It benefits all of us, not just those in states where enormous quantities of natural gas are being produced.

Are there tradeoffs in any energy production — including that of so-called “alternatives?”

Yes. But fracking has not resulted in the environmental cataclysm about which critics warn. The positives far outweigh the negatives.

Candidates advocating a fracking ban are being irresponsible — and one suspects at least some of them know that.

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