From the DAILY CALL
Nick Pope
Contributor
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign says she doesn’t support a ban on fracking, but political strategists and energy experts say a sudden policy shift won’t move the needle with primary voters in November.
Harris said in 2020 there is “no question” he would end fracking if elected president, but his campaign recently told The Hill he does not want to ban the practice after a video of him endorsing the ban resurfaced after President Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 race . The campaign may back away from Harris’s old fracking positions as much as it wants, but it may not be enough to address the concerns of important voting blocs — especially rural and blue-collar voters in Pennsylvania — for Harris to wage war on the industry. or advance Biden’s climate agenda to the detriment of his election, political strategist and energy expert told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“He will find himself between a rock and a hard place on the issue of fracking, and also on other issues like Gaza. He has all his past statements, and the record of the Biden-Harris administration, which is against fracking and the export of liquefied natural gas,” Jon McHenry, GOP polling analyst and vice president at North Star Opinion Research, told DCNF. “And it’s great for grassroots supporters, people who were angry about Joe Biden representing the Democrats a few weeks ago and excited about Kamala Harris, who wants him to ban fracking, and they’re happy to have a younger, liberal candidate running for president.” (RELATED: Trump Campaign’s Simple Plan To Destroy Kamala Harris: Get Her Script)
“The problem is that they have to win independents in states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and Michigan and Georgia, North Carolina and Arizona, who want to see more energy developed in this state and so that we can be energy independent,” McHenry said. “They want to have energy and also ban.”
However, Harris could find a politically viable solution to the problem of public perception of fracking if he rejects his old position and explains to voters his experience in the White House – such as seeing how the global energy market has been affected by the Ukraine war – led. he had to change his mind, McHenry explained to the DCNF.
Fracking is a technique for extracting oil and gas from certain underground rock formations, and it led to a natural gas boom in the US, with American natural gas consumption increasing by approximately 40% between 2000 and 2023 when the US became the global leader in liquefied natural gas. natural gas (LNG) exports, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
The Biden administration decided in January to freeze approvals for a new LNG export terminal, a move critics say is aimed at appeasing climate-focused voters and deep environmental interests ahead of the election.
“Climate change and banning fracking is CENTRAL to his 2020 campaign! I mean, he went on the Tonight Show and did a song about it! No one would believe anything unless he’s a climate cult,” said Scott Jennings, a political strategist and on-air expert for CNN, told DCNF. “He is the Greta of the US government, and that should scare the bejeezus out of every energy worker in Pennsylvania and the American people who will suffer under his radical views.”
Harris has racked up endorsements from major, deep-pocketed environmental organizations that oppose fracking just weeks after announcing her candidacy. Meanwhile, the two more radical groups in the environmental movement – the Sunrise Movement and Climate Defiance – have so far withheld official endorsement.
“If I look at the options regarding the election this November, there are many ways for Kamala Harris to be easier to force and change than the president Donald Trump,” Aru Shiney-Ajay, Sunrise Movement. executive director, told reporters on Friday, according to Politico.
Climate Defiance, which has protested against Harris with one of its disruptive demonstrations, has demanded that Harris meet to demonstrate that he is the candidate who can “bring about an era of equity and sustainability.” The demands include ensuring that there is no oil and gas infrastructure development and ending oil and gas leases on federally controlled lands and waters.
The political and electoral impact of Harris’ fracking flip-flop could be most visible in Pennsylvania, a large producer of natural gas and an important swing state in the 2024 cycle. Former President Donald Trump carried Pennsylvania in 2016 by a narrow margin before losing to Biden in 2020 in the race near another; The figure of the state will be hotly-contested again in 2024, according to McHenry, with a new poll from Susquehanna Polling showing Harris up on Trump by four percentage points with 7% of respondents not sure who will return in November.
Pennsylvania will produce more natural gas than any other state except Texas by 2022, according to the US Energy Information Administration, and the natural gas industry will directly or indirectly support about 123,000 jobs in the state by 2022, according to an August 2023 report prepared by FTI Consulting for the Marcellus Shale Coalition. (RELATED: Will Joe Biden’s Natural Gas Pause Cost Senate Dems in November?)
“Looking back at the 2019 comments about banning fracking or eliminating the filibuster to pass the Green New Deal does not change the fact that the Biden-Harris administration is pausing the expansion of LNG exports, increasing our reliability crisis with subsidies that are not dependent on the weather. Energy sources with the Inflation Reduction Act, and allow federal agencies to over-regulate every coal and natural gas power plant in the country to provide reliable and affordable energy,” André Béliveau, senior manager of energy policy for the Commonwealth Foundation, told DCNF. “Harris can backtrack on his 2019 comments all he wants, but his record from the past four years is clear.”
Dave McCormick, the GOP candidate for the US Senate in Pennsylvania, has run an ad attacking Harris’ energy position and tying together the vice president and his opponent, the incumbent Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey.
Some pundits suggested that Harris could reduce the risk he could run in Pennsylvania by choosing Pennsylvania’s Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro as his running mate. However, choosing Shapiro could cause problems for Harris in other states and isolate a voting bloc he needs to win because of his support for Israel and criticism of pro-Palestinian activists, McHenry told DCNF.
“Bob Casey and Kamala Harris have opposed Pennsylvania’s energy every step of the way, and their anti-fossil fuel agenda will harm our commonwealth and the 600,000 workers who rely on the energy sector for their paychecks,” McCormick said in a shared statement. with DCNF. “Banning fracking and eliminating the filibuster to pass the Green New Deal may be popular on the far left, but in Pennsylvania these radical proposals are out of step with the needs of working families.”
The Harris and Casey campaigns did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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