With the presidential election just two months away, all eyes are on Pennsylvania. Donald Trump’s and Kamala Harris’s campaigns have each spent more than $130 million to advertise in the swing state, hoping to win its coveted nineteen electoral votes and clear a path to the Oval Office.

Since securing Pennsylvania is likely crucial for winning the overall election — Trump won the state in 2016 and lost in 2020, reflecting the national outcome — political operatives and reporters are once more descending on the region in an attempt to crack the code of what makes Pennsylvania voters tick.

This year, as in election seasons past, politicians and the media are continuing to spread the dubious idea that one issue in particular has outsize importance to Pennsylvania’s voters: hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas, also known as fracking. On September 4, at a Pennsylvania town hall moderated by Fox News host Sean Hannity, Trump emphasized his support for fracking, telling the audience that “there’s no chance” Harris would allow the controversial practice as president.