Harris’s energy flip-flop doesn’t change her terrible record
Dr. Maya Angelou once said, "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time." If so, Vice President Kamala Harris let everybody know long ago who she is — especially her disastrous views on energy.
Harris’s years-old campaign promises — from banning hydraulic fracturing to abolishing the filibuster so Congress can pass the Green New Deal — return to haunt her.
"There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking," said Harris in 2019 during her failed primary bid to become president.
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Not so fast! Harris changed her mind — or so her staff claims.
"She would not ban fracking," a campaign spokesperson said on July 28.
The proposal didn’t work in 2019, and it won’t work in 2024, either. Harris’s proposed fracking ban may arouse fanfare with a progressive-leaning audience during a primary, especially considering the party’s continued leftward drift.
However, prominent swing states like Pennsylvania won’t be as kind.
Pennsylvanians — no strangers to "green" energy policy battles — say it matters in voting decisions. In recent polling, most Pennsylvania voters oppose joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a multi-state carbon tax policy that Democrat Gov. Josh Shapiro fights to keep in Pennsylvania, despite its unpopularity and his campaigning on a healthy skepticism of RGGI. Harris and Shapiro favor carbon taxes, which equate to an economy-wide energy tax, raising utility costs.
Energy affordability is paramount to Pennsylvania voters. Polling shows 67% of Pennsylvania voters wouldn’t spend a dollar more out of their pocket to combat climate change; 70% agree with expanding natural gas infrastructure to reduce costs; and 68% believe we should reduce regulatory burdens on our energy industry.
In sum, Pennsylvanians are unlikely to openly embrace Green New Dealism, whether coming from Washington, D.C., or Harrisburg.
A fracking ban would devastate the Keystone State, the nation’s second-largest natural gas producer. Once dubbed "the Saudi Arabia of North America," Pennsylvania relies heavily on energy production and extraction, which contributes $75 billion annually and employs nearly half a million people in the commonwealth.
If Harris wants to win in Pennsylvania, it will behoove her not to promise to destroy its economy.
And many Pennsylvanians know better: Harris, second in command to President Joe Biden, has already wreaked havoc on their livelihoods and utility bills. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee was often in the same room as Biden when he signed one industry-destroying executive order after another.
Case in point: The Biden-Harris administration’s ban on exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG). In January, the administration announced a "temporary pause" on LNG exports. (Mind you, this pause is indefinite, so functionally it’s a ban.)
American energy independence relies on Pennsylvanian energy. At a time of intense conflict overseas, the LNG ban forces our geopolitical allies to look to Russia instead of Pennsylvania for their energy needs.
Federal agencies under Biden and Harris have also ravaged energy-producing states’ economies. In April, the Environmental Protection Agency unilaterally issued a new rule, setting draconian standards for existing coal and new natural gas plants nationwide. The EPA called for plants to adopt yet-to-be-invented carbon-capture technology, promising a death sentence to reliable, affordable energy.
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Harris doesn’t shy away from these drastic policies. In fact, she often boasts about them.
"Since taking office, the President and I have made an incredible investment — the largest investment ever — to take on the climate crisis," said Harris.
But if this current administration’s overreach wasn’t bad enough, things could still get much worse if Harris has her way.
Lest we not forget, she cosponsored the most destructive series of enviro-alarmist policies proposed to date: the Green New Deal. Harris’s ownership of this resolution, which calls to completely decarbonize the United States by 2050, will likely be "a red flag in swing states," reports the New York Times.
Harris’s turnaround on fracking is a purely political calculation. If Harris wants people, especially those living in swing states like Pennsylvania, to take her and her policies seriously, she can’t promise to destroy jobs and drain investment.
Nevertheless, Harris’s record told us who she was: a meddling technocrat who will not only maintain this dangerous current collision course with American energy independence but also strike the final blow.