GOP presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis went toe to toe on the issue of oil production during the second Republican primary debates, with the former U.S. ambassador claiming the Florida governor banned fracking and offshore drilling.
The candidates were prompted with a question on how they plan to bringing gas prices down without immediate drilling – to which Haley used the opportunity to take a swipe at Desantis’s conservationist record as governor. Just two days into his term in 2019, DeSantis issued an executive order ordering the state’s Department of Environmental Protection to oppose all off-shore oil and gas activities off the coast of Florida, along with hydraulic fracturing.
“We need a president that understands we have to partner with our producers and make sure that we have their backs. What you don’t need is a president who was against energy independence,” Haley said.
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Under the DeSantis administration, there have been no new oil and gas permits issued to authorize hydraulic fracturing, specifically. But a bill that would have prohibited fracking more broadly has been stalled in the state legislature.
DeSantis rebuffed Haley’s claims, reiterating plans he recently unveiled in Texas that aims to boost up domestic oil production and bring gas prices down to $2 a gallon – a tall goal that hasn’t been reached since the onset of the pandemic in 2020, when demand significantly dropped due to the economic shutdown.
“We’re going to choose Midland over Moscow. We're going to choose the Marcellus over the Mullahs, and we're going to choose Bakken over Beijing and we're going to lower your gas prices,” DeSantis said on the debate stage Wednesday night.
Just last week, the Florida governor pledged to restore the U.S. to “energy dominance,” by increasing crude, gas, coal, and uranium production activities on federal lands. But his plan represents a stark contrast to the conservationist policies that he’s advocated and campaigned for while residing in the governor’s mansion.
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As governor, DeSantis styled himself as a “Teddy Roosevelt conservationist” who has poured billions into Everglades protection projects and opposed fracking and offshore drilling in the state – contrasting his image as a culture warrior and anti-"woke" conservative.
But that doesn’t mean that he’s against drilling in states other than his own.
“We have a constitutional amendment that does not allow offshore drilling. And so that’s something that we honor,” DeSantis said about Florida while revealing his economic plan in New Hampshire last month. “That is not saying that I think that should apply to Louisiana or Texas. So that will continue.”