Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign has said she no longer supports a ban on fracking, but political strategists and energy experts say the sudden policy shift will do little to sway support from key voters in the November election.
Harris said in 2020:No questions asked“She would end fracking if elected president, but her campaign recently The Hill Harris no longer wants to outlaw the practice, after a video of her supporting a ban resurfaced following President Joe Biden's withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race. The campaign could walk back Harris' old fracking positions, but that likely won't be enough to assuage the concerns of key voting groups, particularly rural and blue-collar Pennsylvania voters. The worry is that if elected, Harris would take on the industry or escalate Biden's climate change policies to their detriment, political strategists and energy experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“She'll be caught in the middle, not just on the issue of fracking, but on other issues like Gaza, where she has all of her past statements and the record of a Biden-Harris administration that opposes fracking and liquefied natural gas exports,” John McHenry, Republican polling analyst and vice president at North Star Opinion Research, told DCNF. “And that's great for her base, people who were upset that Joe Biden represented the Democratic Party a few weeks ago, who are looking to Kamala Harris to ban fracking, and who are excited to see a younger, more liberal candidate run for president.” (Related article: The Trump campaign's simple plan to destroy Kamala Harris: Take her off script)
'Abhorrent to business': Billionaire warns Kamala Harris 'more left than Biden' pic.twitter.com/WPMznW9N4u
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 30, 2024
“The problem is, she has to win over independents in states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona who want to see more energy development in this country and more energy independence,” McHenry continued. “She has her own energy, and she wants to ban it.”
But if Harris were to repudiate her previous positions and explain to voters that her experiences in the White House, including seeing how the war in Ukraine affected global energy markets, led her to change her mind, she could find a politically viable solution to the problem of public perception of fracking, McHenry explained to DCNF.
Hydraulic fracturing Technology Used to extract oil and gas from certain underground rock formations, it increased American natural gas consumption and created a natural gas boom in the United States. increase Between 2000 and 2023, the United States became the world's largest economy, growing by about 40%. leader According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports increased 2.5% from a year earlier.
The Biden administration decided in January to freeze approvals for new LNG export terminals, Critics He said his move was intended to appease climate-conscious voters and well-funded environmental groups ahead of the election.
“Climate change and banning fracking were central to her 2020 campaign! She appeared on the Tonight Show and performed a song about it! No one would believe she's anything other than a climate fanatic,” CNN political strategist and commentator Scott Jennings told DCNF. “She's the Greta of the United States government, and that should terrify every energy worker in Pennsylvania and every American who suffers from her apparently radical views.”
Just weeks after announcing her candidacy, Harris has already garnered support from some of the largest and most well-funded environmental groups opposed to fracking, while two of the more radical groups in the environmental movement: Sunrise Movement and Climate Defiance have so far refrained from formally endorsing it.
“When we look at the options in the November election, there are many ways in which it would be much easier to pressure or make changes to Kamala Harris than it would be to President Donald Trump,” Al Shiny Ajayi, executive director of the Sunrise Movement, told reporters on Monday. according to To Politico.
Climate Defiance has staged disruptive demonstrations against Harris, request Harris is being asked to meet and demonstrate that she is the candidate who can “usher in an era of equity and sustainability,” including ending further oil and gas infrastructure development and ending oil and gas leasing on federal lands and waters.
The political and electoral impacts of Harris' fracking reversal could be most pronounced in Pennsylvania, a major natural gas producer and a key battleground state in the 2024 election cycle. Former President Donald Trump Carried He narrowly won Pennsylvania in 2016, but Loss Biden will face another close race in 2020, and McHenry said he expects another close contest in 2024. vote According to the Susquehanna Poll, Harris is leading Trump by 4 percentage points, with 7% of respondents undecided about who they will support in November.
Pennsylvania produced more natural gas in 2022 than any other state except Texas. according to According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the natural gas industry directly or indirectly supports about 123,000 jobs in the state as of 2022. according to An August 2023 report prepared by FTI Consulting for the Marcellus Shale Coalition. (Related article: Will Joe Biden's natural gas cuts hurt Democrats in November's Senate elections?)
'Abhorrent to business': Billionaire warns Kamala Harris 'more left than Biden' pic.twitter.com/WPMznW9N4u
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 30, 2024
“Retracting comments made in 2019 about banning fracking or abolishing the filibuster to pass the Green New Deal doesn't change the fact that the Biden-Harris Administration paused the expansion of LNG exports, exacerbated a looming reliability crisis by subsidizing unreliable weather-dependent energy sources with the Inflation Control Act, and authorized federal agencies to over-regulate every coal-fired and natural gas power plant in the country that provides reliable, affordable energy,” Andre Beliveau, senior manager of energy policy at the Commonwealth Foundation, told DCNF. “Harris can retract all her 2019 comments she likes, but her track record over the past four years is clear.”
Dave McCormick, Republican candidate for the Senate in Pennsylvania, has already advertisement He attacked Harris' stance on energy policy, tying her against the vice president and her opponent, incumbent Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, a Democrat.
Several critic Harris has suggested she could mitigate the risks she faces in Pennsylvania by choosing Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro as her running mate, but McHenry told the DCNF that choosing Shapiro as her running mate could also give Harris trouble in other states, and that his support for Israel and criticism of pro-Palestinian activists could alienate voters she needs to win.
“Bob Casey and Kamala Harris have always been opposed to energy in Pennsylvania, and their anti-fossil fuel policies would be disastrous for our state and the 600,000 workers who earn their paycheck in the energy sector,” McCormick said in a statement shared with the DCNF. “Banning fracking and abolishing the filibuster to pass a Green New Deal may be popular among the far left, but here in Pennsylvania, these radical proposals are fundamentally out of touch with the needs of working families.”
The Harris and Casey campaigns did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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