Ban fracking activist groups suffered yet another defeat with the Democratic National Committee (DNC) rejecting their push to include a fracking ban as part of the party’s platform.

The move was championed by activists with ties to the Keep it in the Ground (KIITG) movement such as  350.org co-founder Bill McKibben, who was actually appointed to the DNC Platform Committee by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, in an attempt to push the national party to adopt their extreme stance on energy development.  As the Daily Caller reports:

“Bill McKibben, the co-founder of the environmental group 350.org, proposed having the DNC’s platform include for a moratorium on fracking, but the drafting committee spiked both proposals by a vote of seven to six. When it became clear that the platform change would fail, environmentalist in the audience began yelling “shame on you” and “shame” at the committee members.

Of course, this rejection is not surprising because, as EID has pointed out many times, many of our nation’s leading Democrats not only support fracking, but extol the process as the “very best and safest extraction technique.” As Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper writes in his recent memoir,

“Based on experience and science, I recognized that fracking was one of our very best and safest extraction techniques. Fracking is good for the country’s energy supply, our national security, our economy, and our environment.” (pg. 277)

Virginia Senator Tim Kaine put it well when he said,

“You know we’ve been improving our emissions in this country without agreeing to the Kyoto Accord, without congressional actions, because of innovations in the natural gas area.”

New York Sen. Chuck Schumer  – whose own state is suffering economically due to its ill-advised fracking ban – confirmed the bipartisan support that fracking enjoys during an MSNBC interview:

“Overall, the Democrats throughout the country have supported fracking. The President has, most of us have, and it’s worked quite well.”

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell has offered a sharp rebuke for KIITG activists in comments made to Northern California NPR affiliate KQED  her belief that fears associated with hydraulic fracturing are not founded in “sound science,” Jewell was very clear in where she stands on the issue of fracking bans:

 “I would say that is the wrong way to go,” Jewell told KQED in an exclusive interview.

California Gov. Jerry Brown  – one of the leading climate change activists of the past 40 years — has said that a ban on fracking “doesn’t make a lot of sense”, noting that the process uses much less water than activists claim and that a ban would increase California’s reliance on foreign oil.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has even developed a factsheet, that explains the climate benefits of natural gas.

In addition, Secretary Clinton’s campaign advisor John Podesta said, during a roundtable discussion on climate change at the White House, that opposing all fossil fuels is “completely impractical”

“Asked about the criticism, Podesta spoke generally, saying the country would benefit if more power plants relied on gas.

‘So I think we remain committed to developing the resource and using it, and we think there’s an advantage, particularly in the electricity generation sector, to move it forward,” he said.”

While McKibben’s KIITG movement will surely press on with their push to end fossil fuel development, this latest defeat is only further evidence of just how out of touch their anti-energy agenda has become. But this high profile defeat only highlights how McKibben and his cohort’s ongoing anti-fracking rhetoric, is out of touch scientific consensus, the majority in the Democratic party and with the needs of everyday Americans who rely on affordable and reliable energy.