When pressed on the issue, Vice President Kamala Harris has attempted to position herself as a proponent of fracking, but has always omitted important context from the talking points she uses in defense.
Harris said in 2019:There is no doubtSenator Biden-Harris, who has said “fracking should be banned,” points to her vote on the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) as evidence that she now supports oil and gas development. However, the Biden-Harris Administration has delayed or obstructed the implementation of oil and gas leasing, which the bill requires must be implemented in exchange for the development of green energy leasing.
“My values haven't changed. I'm willing to debate everything you've said, but specifically, because this is Pennsylvania, let's talk about fracking. I made it very clear in 2020 that I would not ban fracking. As vice president of the United States, I have never banned fracking,” Harris said. said “And in fact, I voted in the runoff on the anti-inflation bill that opened up new fracking rights,” she said in response to a question about her multiple policy shifts during Tuesday night's debate with former President Donald Trump. (RELATED: 'Our values haven't changed': Kamala Harris backs fracking after administration harshly criticizes fossil fuels)
CNN Checks Out Biden's Fracking Sandals 👀 https://t.co/ospQSOssO9
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) October 23, 2020
Harris made similar remarks in an interview with CNN's Dana Bash, responding to a question about her stance on fracking.
Specifically, the IRA provided that in order for any new offshore wind leases to be created, the federal government must offer at least 60 million acres' worth of offshore oil and gas leases in the previous year. According to The provision was the work of then-West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who pushed for such language in the IRA when the bill was being negotiated, according to Columbia Law School's IRA tracker. According to The bill passed without any votes from Manchin or his colleagues, according to The Wall Street Journal. resist Independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona was persuaded to support the bill.
Additionally, the IRA combined onshore oil and gas activities, often involving hydraulic fracturing, with green energy development on federal lands. According to The law also requires the federal government to make 2 million acres of land available for oil and gas leasing in the year before issuing permits for wind and solar projects, according to E&E News.
But the Biden-Harris Administration has removed vast swaths of the nation's public lands from oil and gas development. In Alaska alone, the administration has restricted future development on tens of millions of acres of land, including about half of the Alaska National Petroleum Reserve.
After the bill was passed, the Biden-Harris administration began slowing down the five-year leasing schedule from 2024 to 2029, which was an executive measure to slow the oil and gas sector of the Manchin compromise bill. Ultimately, the administration Confirm Five-year offshore oil and gas leasing plan announced for December 2023 — More than a year Behind The schedule was changed to offer at least 60 million acres in three Gulf of Mexico lease sales, the fewest sales in any five-year plan in U.S. history.
In contrast, the Biden-Harris Administration has released an ambitious five-year offshore wind leasing plan that projects 12 offshore wind leases by 2029. (Related: Radical anti-fracking activists endorse Kamala Harris' campaign)
Harris campaign official avoids CNN host's question about VP's change of stance on fracking issue pic.twitter.com/WMUaFmEIyO
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 28, 2024
Another lease sale, conducted during the Biden-Harris administration, also suggests a future Harris-Waltz administration may not be as open to oil and gas development as the vice president suggested during the debate.
Lease Sale 261 was also located in the Gulf of Mexico and was the last sale to take place before 2024. cancel It was approved by the Biden-Harris Administration in 2021 on a five-year timeline and then reinstated under the terms of the IRA. According to To the Congressional Research Service.
Lease sales also included Litigation Environmental groups sued, arguing that the environmental study that was the basis for the sale did not adequately consider protections for the rice whale, an endangered species believed to live in the Gulf of Mexico. The Biden-Harris administration responded by reducing the lease area by 6 million acres and imposing additional protections for the rice whale.
Critics of the protections stated that these additional requirements would effectively inhibit operators' ability to develop the remaining unprotected lease areas. The federal action was challenged in court by various industry groups and the state of Louisiana, and the federal government was ultimately ordered to withhold 261 lease sales without the additional protections for rice whales.
The sale was ultimately set to take place in December 2023, attracting bids of hundreds of millions of dollars from developers. According to According to the Oil & Gas Journal, during the period when Lease Sale 261 was held up by litigation and procedural delays, the administration provided a bailout for Venezuela's energy sector in a de facto democracy-for-oil deal with Venezuela's socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro that was later rescinded.
The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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