Presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ claim that she no longer supports a fracking ban contrasts with what she said five years ago.
Right before she dropped out of the 2020 presidential race in 2019 and joined current President Joe Biden’s ticket, she made it clear during a CNN town hall that she very much supports banning hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
“There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking and starting with what we can do on day one around public lands, right?” she said. “And then there has to be legislation, but, yes, that’s something I’ve taken on in California. I have a history of working on this issue. [W]e have to just acknowledge that the residual impact of fracking is enormous in terms of the health and safety of communities.”
Listen:
That same year, she cosponsored radical Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal, which also includes a ban on fracking.
“Climate change is real, and it poses an existential threat to us as human beings, and it is within our power to do something about it,” she said at the time. “I am supporting the Green New Deal.”
Listen:
Kamala Harris in 2019.
“I am supporting the Green New Deal” pic.twitter.com/XDIcjKJ8jr
— Sunrise Movement (@sunrisemvmt) July 21, 2024
Yet now that she’s running for president against former President Donald Trump, a staunch fracking supporter who’s leading her in most polls, she’s suddenly changed her tune, though Trump isn’t buying it.
“She wants no fracking,” he said during a rally in Charlotte this week. “You’re going to be paying a lot of money. You’re going to be paying so much. You’re going to say ‘bring back Trump.'”
“She co-sponsored the $100 trillion Green New Scam, with a goal of completely abolishing the oil, coal and natural gas industries, which would reduce the United States to a third-world country,” he added.
Bob Casey just endorsed the most liberal nominee in U.S. history. pic.twitter.com/J0V6W7CUlh
— Dave McCormick (@DaveMcCormickPA) July 23, 2024
In a subsequent statement made to The Hill, Harris’ campaign rebuffed some of Trump’s claims.
“Trump’s false claims about fracking bans are an obvious attempt to distract from his own plans to enrich oil and gas executives at the expense of the middle class,” they said. “The Biden-Harris Administration passed the largest ever climate change legislation and under their leadership, America now has the highest ever domestic energy production.”
“This Administration created 300,000 energy jobs, while Trump lost nearly a million and his Project 2025 would undo the enormous progress we’ve made the past four years,” they added.
What they said about “the highest ever domestic energy production” was a misleading lie.
According to D.C. station WUSA, “domestic production reached its highest point ever in early 2020, while President Donald Trump was in office, with over 13 million barrels of oil produced a day.”
However, because of the COVID crisis, which was out of Trump’s control, oil production dropped later in his presidency, causing the “average oil production” rate over the course of his whole presidency to be slightly lower than that of Biden and Harris.
“POLITICAL WORDLE”: CNBC rips the Biden administration for lying about domestic oil production.
“We’re not anywhere near record oil production.” pic.twitter.com/S72dAiy6lQ
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 24, 2022
Dovetailing back to the fracking issue, Republicans are still running with it despite Harris’ ostensibly changed position.
“Kamala Harris is the most far-left progressive presidential nominee in history, and extreme Democrats in the Rust Belt now own every single policy she supports,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Mike Marinella told Fox News.
“A fracking ban would be disastrous for workers and families, and extreme Democrats’ mission to force Biden to step aside and replace him with San Francisco radical Kamala Harris shows exactly how out of touch they are with their voters,” he added.
According to E&E News, Harris has also previously said she wants the Department of Justice to prosecute fossil fuel companies over climate change, which would of course send gas/electricity prices skyrocketing. She also once called for banning plastic straws.
Speaking with the outlet, some Democrats sought to defend Harris, particularly over her past support for the disastrous Green New Deal.
“I think the Green New Deal has proved itself to be largely symbolic … I always thought it made the mistakes of trying to redo the whole economy, which makes the climate problem even harder to solve,” Rep. Scott Peters said. “So I don’t think that’s going to be an issue.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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