Emails obtained by The Intercept from the State Department reveal new details of Hillary Clinton’s behind-the-scenes efforts to export fracking—a method of extracting oil and natural gas from underground shale deposits—to foreign countries during her tenure as Secretary of State. The emails, acquired through a Freedom of Information Act request, could be particularly damning in light of Clinton’s recent attempts to ally herself with the anti-fracking movement.
Last month, in advance of the New York primary, the Clinton campaign aired a television ad announcing her allegiance with so-called fracktivists fighting to stop fracking, which has been tied to a number of health and environmental problems. (New York banned fracking in 2015 after an extensive seven-year study.) In the spot, a narrator says, “China. India. Some of the world’s worst polluters. As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton forced them to the table, making real change by laying the groundwork for the historic global agreement to combat climate change,” and adding that as president, Clinton will “stand firm with New Yorkers opposing fracking, giving communities the right to say no.” The ad was not announced to the press at the time and is not included with most of Clinton’s other ads on her official campaign YouTube page.
The recently obtained emails appear to contradict the anti-fracking position the Democratic frontrunner takes in the spot. Recently, Clinton has tried to distance herself the fossil fuel industry, fending off attacks from her opponent, Bernie Sanders, whose campaign argued that she “has relied heavily on funds [3] from lobbyists working for the oil, gas and coal industry.”Lee Fang and Steve Horn write on The Intercept [4]: