Pennsylvania Republican Dave McCormick wows fracking workers as no-show Sen. Bob Casey skewered for video remarks: Just ate him up

ERIE, Pa.— Grilled chicken breast, baby tomatoes and couscous were served for lunch at the 2024 Shale Insight Conference this week.

So was Democratic Sen.Bob Casey.For three days, oil and gas workers from Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia gathered in Erie to network and discuss the future of their industry, from new drilling technology to geopolitics. The senator and his Republican challenger, Dave McCormick, both made their pitches in this northwestern Pennsylvania center Thursday to the fracking industry, which is vital to the economy in the battleground state.

A swath of recent polls finds McCormick closing in on Casey; a Monmouth University survey released Friday shows the Democrat with just a 4-point lead among registered voters.While McCormick came in person to deliver his vision of energy dominance, Casey showed face via prerecorded video. Among industry brass, there was no contest.“If you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re on the menu.

And McCormick just ate him up,” attendee Jim Milleson told The Post.Milleson, president of the Ohio Valley Energy Association, is a Democrat and said he’d vote for Casey if he lived in Pennsylvania.Still, the no-show senator didn’t do himself any favors with frackers this week.

“I was disappointed Casey didn’t show up,” he added.In his on-screen screed, Casey paid lip service to the oil and natural-gas industry for creating good-paying jobs and promoting US energy independence.

He also emphasized tax credits aimed at incentivizing the energy industry to open up shop in natural-gas and coal-mining communities and challenged the Biden-Harris administration to expand hydrogen-production tax credits. “I’ll keep pushing, pushing hard the administration until they get this right,” Casey said.But the video ended without applause, and attendees told The Post both the message and the medium left them unimpressed.“I viewed his speech and his support of the industry as mainly a façade,” sai...