Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders proposed a bill at the end of January that would ban fracking, but experts in Texas say it's just a campaign tactic that ultimately wouldn't significantly affect oil and gas operations in the state. 

"Fracking is a danger to our water supply," Sanders tweeted in May 2019. "It’s a danger to the air we breathe. It causes earthquakes. It’s highly explosive. And it’s contributing to climate change. We need to ban it nationwide."

Todd Staples, president of the Texas Oil and Natural Gas Association, believes fracking has created jobs and low-cost energy in Texas. 

"This type of legislation would actually decimate millions of lives across America," Staples told Texas Public Radio. "And jeopardize the ability to get much-needed power to our hospitals, to our homes, to our schools."

The legislation is pandering to voters because it's not considering the process that it takes to deliver power to heat and cool homes, Staples said. 

Director of FracDallas, Mark McCord, recently told Texas Public Radio that there actually isn't much fracking going on except in the Permian Basin, and Sanders wouldn't be able to enforce a fracking ban even if opposition to fracking became popular again. 

"Well, it’s possible for Bernie Sanders or any other president to stop it on federal land,” McCord said. "He could not stop it on state land and he could not stop it on private land."