Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign team said she doesn’t support a ban on fracking, reversing the stance she took on this controversial approach to oil and gas extraction when she was a presidential candidate in 2019.
Harris’ past anti-fracking stance has develop into a talking point for Republicans as they now give attention to the likely Democratic presidential nominee. Excerpts from her previous comments appear in Campaign Ads within the swing state of Pennsylvania, a prolific natural gas producer.
Former President Donald Trump raised the difficulty during an election campaign rally in North Carolina this week, where she told her supporters that Harris had “publicly boasted, ‘There is no doubt that I am for a ban on fracking.’ She doesn’t want fracking, and that’s going to hit your pocketbook, because you’re going to pay a lot of money for it.”
Lauren Hitt, spokeswoman for Harris’ campaign, rejected that, saying the Biden-Harris administration has created 300,000 energy jobs and Trump’s claims about fracking bans are “false.” She pointed to climate change laws passed under President Joe Biden and said U.S. domestic energy production is at an all-time high.
Fracking, also often called hydraulic fracturing, involves pumping water, sand and chemicals underground to release oil and gas from tight rock formations. The process is used to extract oil and gas from about 95% of U.S. wells, and has been protested by environmental groups concerned about groundwater pollution and against fossil fuels.
Asked in 2019 during a CNN presidential nomination Forum When asked whether she would support a ban on fracking on her first day in office, Harris said to applause: “There is no question that I support a ban on fracking.”
“And we need to define from day one what we can do on public lands,” Harris continued, “and then there needs to be laws in place to do so.”
While there are several ways Harris could use the chief branch to stop fracking on federal lands if elected president, she wouldn’t have the ability to unilaterally ban it on private lands. Under a 2005 law, the Environmental Protection Agency has virtually no regulatory power over fracking. Changing that will require an act of Congress.
