A top climate Harris campaign aide appears to be walking back Vice President Kamala Harris’s unconditional support of fracking, a position she opposed in 2019 when she vowed to ban it.
The flip flop underscores claims made by critics that Harris is an empty political shell with intentions to do or say whatever is needed to get elected.
WATCH — Harris Surrogate: Harris and Biden Wanted “No New Leases” for Fracking on Federal Land in 2020:
A near-majority (48 percent) of Americans believe Harris just says what she thinks people want to hear, while only 36 percent think she says what she believes, a recent Economist/YouGov poll found.
Camila Thorndike, Harris’s climate engagement director, told Politico last week that Harris no longer supports land leases for fracking. Harris touted the so-called Inflation Reduction Act that contained provisions to expand leases for fracking.
Harris cast the bill’s tie-breaking vote in the Senate. President Joe Biden later signed the bill.
“Just to be clear, Vice President Harris hasn’t said anything that the administration hasn’t already said,” Thorndike told Politico. “She is not promoting expansion [of fracking leases]. She’s just said that they wouldn’t ban fracking and the fact that anyone could look up is that the IRA required leases, and that was not something that she promoted.”During the 2019 presidential campaign, Harris said “there’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.” That comment was walked back five years later on CNN during an interview with Dana Bash.
Harris claimed she never was in favor of banning fracking. “I made that clear on the debate stage in 2020,” she told Bash. “That I would not ban fracking. As vice president, I did not ban fracking. As president, I will not ban fracking.”Nobody appears to know in Pennsylvania what Harris truly believes about fracking or what she would do if she wins in November.
WATCH — Dem Rep. Phillips: ABC “Should Have Challenged” Harris More on Policy Flips:
Doing away with fracking in the Keystone State would mean terminating jobs and state revenue. About 2,000 landowners collect royalties from leasing their properties to natural gas wells, the Marcellus Shale Coalition estimated. Those royalties are taxes and provide local municipalities revenue for public schools, police departments, and conservation projects.
Fracking generated $3.2 billion in state and local tax revenue, the Washington Post reported, with royalty payments soaring above $6 billion. About 121,000 jobs for Pennsylvanian residents are linked to fracking, an FTI Consulting study found in 2022.
Pennsylvania is a significant state in the Democrat’s Blue Wall strategy to prevent former President Donald Trump from completing the greatest comeback in American political history. Most surveys show Harris holds a slight lead over the former president but within the margin of error.
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former RNC War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
