Natural Allies\u2014whose funders include the fracking company EQT, gas utility Enbridge and Venture Global, a liquefied natural gas provider\u2014woos left-leaning and moderate voters in blue and purple states by hiring Democratic leaders like Nutter to share their message. Nutter\u2019s advisory firm was paid $240,000<\/a> in 2024 for his work on behalf of the group, and he sits on its leadership council with other Democratic politicians like former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and former Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan.\u00a0<\/p>\n Eugene DePasquale, the current chair of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, is the state chairman for Natural Allies. He appeared on the panel alongside Nutter.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s always been focused on, \u2018How do we convince Democrat officials to stay onside to support fossil fuels?\u2019\u201d said Charlie Spatz, a research manager at the Energy and Policy Institute, of Natural Allies\u2019 mission. \u201cThey exclusively exist to influence Democrats, in my opinion.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The group was created to ensure that gas companies still have \u201ca seat at the table,\u201d no matter which party is in power or what is happening in Washington, D.C., Spatz said. The second Trump administration\u2019s rollbacks of Biden-era climate policies and enthusiasm for fossil fuels mean that regional and local battles are more important to the industry in 2026. Natural Allies spends money to influence politics in key states like Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia and New Jersey, targeting<\/a> women, people of color and younger voters.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey do a lot of sowing of doubt,\u201d said Alan Zibel, research director at Public Citizen, which investigated the group in 2024. \u201cIt\u2019s very sneaky and probably effective.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI talk about natural gas as a part of a clean energy future as we transition to newer, better and greater,\u201d Nutter said during the panel. \u201cYes, I\u2019d like a clean energy future. But yes, I\u2019d also like people to be able to cook a meal at night. And we have \u2026 an abundance of natural gas.\u201d Pennsylvania is the country\u2019s second-largest producer after Texas.<\/p>\n Nutter\u2019s description of solar and wind power as unreliable and expensive may sound familiar. That\u2019s because this talking point comes from the oil and gas industry playbook for stalling action on climate change, according to recent research<\/a> on fossil fuel companies\u2019 communications strategies.\u00a0<\/p>\n To slow down a transition away from fossil fuels, the industry emphasizes downsides of renewable energy and paints their own products as \u201cpart of the solution,\u201d said Jennie Stephens, a professor of climate justice at the National University of Ireland Maynooth who co-authored the study.\u00a0<\/p>\n Stephens said these tactics are part of a shift away from outright denial that climate change is happening and toward obstruction and delay. Even the name of the product\u2014 which is largely made up of the potent climate pollutant methane\u2014amounts to PR<\/a>: \u201cCalling it \u2018natural\u2019 is an industry strategy to make it seem more benign,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s constantly evolving, the strategies and tactics for blocking policy and any constraints on fossil fuels.\u201d<\/p>\n Suggesting renewable energy is unaffordable is wrong\u2014these days it\u2019s the cheapest way to produce electricity, according to financial advisory firm Lazard<\/a>. Gas is no longer essential to account for wind and solar\u2019s intermittency: Battery storage smooths that out without emitting greenhouse gases.<\/p>\n Gas plants<\/a> suffer from their own reliability issues, especially in extreme weather. And even as the costs of renewable energy decline<\/a>, the U.S. war in Iran has illustrated the affordability problems for consumers when you rely solely on fossil fuels<\/a> traded on a global market. States and countries using a more diverse mix of energy sources fare better when price spikes hit oil and gas.<\/p>\n This story is funded by readers like you.<\/p>\n Our nonprofit newsroom provides award-winning climate coverage free of charge and advertising. We rely on donations from readers like you to keep going. Please donate now to support our work.<\/p>\n Donate Now<\/a> <\/p>\n In a narrow sense, burning gas is more efficient than burning coal or oil, Stephens said. \u201cBut that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s clean at all. It\u2019s still a fossil fuel.\u201d And because it\u2019s a gas, every leak along the way from extraction to use damages the climate.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFor fracked shale gas used domestically in the U.S., the greenhouse gas footprint is about the same as coal,\u201d said Robert Howarth, professor of ecology and environmental biology at Cornell University. Howarth has studied emissions from the fracking boom for more than 15 years. For gas that is exported as LNG, emissions are about 30 percent worse than coal<\/a>, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we continue to burn natural gas, we pose a real threat to the future of society as we know it,\u201d Howarth said. And the ripple effects of climate change are only just beginning. \u201cWe\u2019re getting more intense storms already, more floods, more droughts. We\u2019re getting stronger fires. We\u2019re seeing loss of agricultural productivity already.\u201d Climate change has cost Pennsylvania hundreds of millions of dollars<\/a>, and the bill is projected to increase in the future<\/a>.<\/p>\n In an interview, DePasquale said he views his work with Natural Allies as a \u201ccontinuation\u201d of his career as a state legislator and auditor general, when he published a report<\/a> on fracking that concluded state environmental regulators had \u201cfailed to keep pace with the industry\u2019s expansion and the public\u2019s demands.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI obviously view natural gas as a bridge to a day when we are going to have, potentially, 100 percent renewables. We\u2019re obviously not there yet,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I view natural gas as a significantly cleaner alternative to coal.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf we continue to burn natural gas, we pose a real threat to the future of society as we know it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 Robert Howarth, Cornell University<\/p>\n Supporters of the industry\u2014including President Barack Obama\u2014touted gas as a \u201ctransition fuel\u201d between coal and renewables for years. Today, almost 60 percent<\/a> of the state\u2019s grid depends on gas. This reliance, coupled with increasing LNG exports, exposes Pennsylvanians<\/a> to price swings in the global market even as production rises.<\/p>\n Natural Allies\u2019 website, with its blue and green color palette and calming imagery of wind turbines and solar panels, evokes environmental progress. But the group seems to have dropped the old \u201cbridge fuel\u201d metaphor for a message that combating climate change means renewables and natural gas \u201cworking together.\u201d<\/p>\n Democrats in Pennsylvania, including DePasquale and Gov. Josh Shapiro, promote an \u201call of the above\u201d energy approach that includes solar, wind, nuclear and fossil fuels. In practice, that has meant expanding gas at the expense of other forms of energy.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think reasonable environmentalists understand that natural gas is not going away, but their frustration lies in the slowness of expanding renewables,\u201d said Rep. Greg Vitali, a Democrat who has long championed environmental reforms in Pennsylvania\u2019s legislature.\u00a0<\/p>\n DePasquale chalked up this lack of growth to the reality of politics in a purple state: Republicans have controlled the Pennsylvania Senate since 1994.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the early 2000s, before fracking took off in Pennsylvania, DePasquale was part of the team that promoted and passed Pennsylvania\u2019s Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act, a law that required a certain percentage of electricity generation to come from alternative energy sources. Back then, Pennsylvania was a pioneer among its peers, leading the way on clean energy.\u00a0<\/p>\n More than two decades later, it ranks 49th for renewable energy growth in the U.S. Only 4 percent of Pennsylvania\u2019s electricity comes from renewable energy<\/a>, and that number has barely budged since the fracking boom began.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-2203455648-1024x683.jpg\"\/)
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A drilling rig is at a natural gas fracking pad in Pennsylvania\u2019s Greene County. Credit: Jim West\/UCG\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images<\/p>\n
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