As Congress and a special prosecutor continue to investigate whether Russia used social media to influence the 2016 Presidential election, U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-San Antonio) says he wants a new investigation into whether the Russians are also conducting a social media campaign against fracking, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
"To the extent that they can lower our production of fossil fuels, for example, than their fossil fuels will be able to demand a higher price," Smith said.
Smith, who chairs the House Space, Science, and Technology Committee is asking Facebook and Twitter to turn over records of Russian involvement in anti fossil fuel advertising.
"They do not want the United States supplying oil and gas to countries in their region of the world, and competing with Russia," Smith said.
Republicans have long accused Russia of using front companies and donors to help fund environmental groups to push an anti fracking message, something that the environmental organizations have denied.
Several groups have raised exceptions about fracking, including claims that it leads to earthquakes, and poisons the atmosphere and the water supply, charges that have largely been rejected by scientific testing.
Horizontal fracturing of shale deposits, which was invented by Houston oilman George Mitchell in 2008, has vastly increased the available oil and gas resources available in the United States, leading to huge increases in supplies and significant drops in prices.
Many U.S. firms, using laws imposed in the last years of the Obama Administration, have begun exporting refined products to Eastern Europe and north Asia, entering a market which was previously controlled by Russia.