Former drilling opponent Harris now says she supports the plan. “Sprint to the middle” or climate betrayal?

WASHINGTON (AP) — While touting her efforts to promote clean energy, Vice President Kamala Harris said in Tuesday’s debate that the Biden-Harris administration has “overseen the largest increase in domestic oil production in history because of an approach that recognizes that we cannot rely too heavily on foreign oil.”

The remark from Harris, a longtime climate activist who supported the original Green New Deal, surprised supporters and opponents alike – and contradicted frequent boasts by Harris and President Joe Biden that they are leaders in the fight to slow global warming.

After former President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement, the Biden-Harris administration rejoined the global pact to reduce emissions. The administration also set a goal of cutting U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 and began accelerating renewable energy projects and moving away from fossil fuels.

Republican strategist Liam Donovan said it was notable that Harris, at a debate in energy-rich Pennsylvania, “bragged about something that President Biden has barely acknowledged — that domestic fossil fuel production is at an all-time high under the Biden administration.” Crude oil production averaged 12.9 million barrels a day last year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, beating the previous record set in 2019 under Trump.

The statement was “another sign of Harris’ sprint to the center” on energy policy and other issues, Donovan said.

Harris even went a step further, portraying the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 – the administration’s most important climate bill – as a boon to fracking and other drilling, thanks to lease-sale requirements inserted into the bill by West Virginia Independent Senator Joe Manchin, a key swing voter in the Senate and strong supporter of the fossil fuel industry.

Harris’ comments disappointed some in the environmental community.

“Harris missed a crucial opportunity to draw a stark contrast to Trump and show young voters that she will stand up to the oil companies and stop the climate crisis,” said Stevie O’Hanlon, a spokesman for the Sunrise Movement, one of the groups behind the Green New Deal.

“Harris has spent more time promoting fracking than crafting a bold vision for a clean energy future,” O’Hanlon said. “Young voters want more from Harris,” she added, “on climate change. We want to see a real plan that addresses the scale and urgency of this crisis.”

Her group is working to mobilize young voters, “but we hear people every day asking, ‘What are the Democrats going to do for us?'” O’Hanlon said. “To win, Harris has to show young people that she will fight for us.”

Other environmental groups were less critical, pointing to the looming threat to climate protection posed by Trump, who rolled back more than 100 environmental protection measures during his term as president.

“There is only one presidential candidate who is committed to climate action, and that is Kamala Harris,” said Alex Glass of the liberal advocacy group Climate Power. Harris “laid out a clear vision to invest in clean energy jobs and lower costs for working families,” Glass said.

In comparison, Trump will “obey the orders of his oil industry donors,” she said.

Glass cited the conservative Project 2025, written by Trump allies, saying it would put millions of clean energy jobs at risk and allow oil companies to “make profits and pollute.” Trump has denied a direct connection to Project 2025 but endorsed some of its core ideas.

Mike Sommers, president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, the oil and gas industry’s main lobbying group, said Harris’ statement supporting fracking reflected the political reality in the hotly contested election. “You have to support fracking to get elected president in 2024,” he said. “That’s good news for our industry and great news for American consumers.”

When asked why he was so convinced of the need to support fracking, Sommers answered with one word: “Pennsylvania.”

Pennsylvania is not only a crucial swing state in the election, but also “the beating heart of this country’s natural gas industry,” Sommers said, and ranks only behind Texas in total production.

“You can’t win Pennsylvania without supporting fracking, and you can’t win the presidency without supporting Pennsylvania,” Sommers said.

During the debate, Trump disputed Harris’s statement that she would not seek to ban fracking. However, Sommers said he took Harris at her word and welcomed her support for fracking and oil drilling in general.

Asked if he was concerned about Harris’s previous lawsuits against oil companies, Sommers said he was not. The oil and gas industry provides 11 million jobs, he said, and the price of gasoline is “determined by economic factors – supply and demand. There is no man behind the scenes” manipulating prices.

As California’s Attorney General, she “won tens of millions of dollars in settlements against the oil industry and held polluters accountable,” according to her campaign statement. Her platform includes a promise to “hold polluters accountable to ensure clean air and water for all.”

Trump, meanwhile, has vowed to cut unspent funds from the climate bill and other programs and said he would target offshore wind projects. He said Harris would push to restrict onshore oil and gas production if elected.

“They’re going to start destroying our country again, and then there’s going to be no more oil and no more fossil fuels,” Trump said.

A president’s power to restrict fracking is limited even on federal lands. Banning the practice on private lands would require an act of Congress.