Vice President Kamala Harris, who needs Rust Belt voters to win the Oval Office, could lose the November election to former President Donald Trump because of her efforts to eliminate fossil fuels.
Ms. Harris has been vague about her plans to govern on energy issues as she tries to keep climate activists in her corner without angering swing-state voters who rely on the oil and gas economy and low energy costs.
In a policy blurb on her campaign website the day before Tuesday’s presidential debate, Ms. Harris promised to “unite Americans to tackle the climate crisis” and lower energy costs while creating “millions” of jobs. She pledged to advance “environmental justice,” protect public lands and hold polluters accountable. The 196-word pitch doesn’t explain how Ms. Harris would accomplish those goals or address concerns that solar and wind power destabilize the nation’s energy grid, the push for electric vehicles has backfired, and efforts to reduce fossil fuel production have resulted in higher energy costs.
Mr. Trump is proposing an aggressive pursuit of energy development. His “drill, baby, drill” mantra includes fracking, a method of extracting oil and natural gas from underground rocks.
He is attacking Ms. Harris’ record on energy, exposing her devotion to the Green New Deal and warning swing-state voters the net-zero emissions policies implemented by the Biden-Harris administration are hurting U.S. energy production and causing prices to skyrocket.
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The issue could tip the race in Pennsylvania, Michigan and other Rust Belt states where fracking and manufacturing dominate and where Biden administration policies on energy have affected the economy with higher gas and electricity prices.
“Despite low gas prices and record fossil fuel production, consumers are always attentive to energy costs. And if inflationary concerns linger, Trump’s campaign hopes to harness the issue,” said Christopher Borick, a politics professor at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania.
Indeed, the issue remains hot despite the U.S. ranking as the world’s top energy producer. For the past six years in a row, the U.S. produced more crude oil than any nation at any time, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The two candidates are deadlocked among voters in Pennsylvania. Ms. Harris leads by about 1 percentage point in recent polls in Michigan and Wisconsin.
Mr. Trump is hoping to weaken Ms. Harris’ election chances in Rust Belt states by spotlighting her policies against fossil fuels, her administration’s sharp reduction in oil and gas leases on federal lands, and significant increases in up-front drilling costs.
“She’s vowed repeatedly that she will ban fracking, she will always ban fracking,” Mr. Trump told supporters at an Aug. 30 rally in western Pennsylvania, home to most of the state’s fracking industry.
Fracking generated $41.4 billion in economic activity in Pennsylvania and supported 123,000 jobs in 2022, according to the Marcellus Shale Coalition.
Republicans aren’t letting Ms. Harris forget her 2019 presidential campaign pledge to ban fracking on federal land. In a CNN interview last month, her sole sit-down media interview as a presidential candidate, Ms. Harris said, without much explanation, that she changed her mind in 2020 when President Biden reversed course on a fracking ban and chose her as his running mate.
“In 2020, I made very clear where I stand. We are in 2024, and I have not changed that position, nor will I going forward. I kept my word, and I will keep my word,” she said.
The matter is closed for Ms. Harris but not for Mr. Trump.
At an Aug. 29 rally in Potterville, Michigan, Mr. Trump told supporters at the Arlo Steel plant that the Biden-Harris administration’s work to shutter power plants has increased energy costs. He slammed Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris for moving to implement the nation’s strictest-ever tailpipe emissions caps, forcing auto manufacturers to switch most of their production to electric vehicles, which could devastate the industry.
Mr. Trump promised to reverse those policies on his first day in office.
“To achieve this rapid reduction in energy costs, I will declare a national emergency to allow us to dramatically increase energy production, generation and supply, which Comrade Kamala has destroyed,” Mr. Trump told the crowd, using one of his infamous nicknames for his political opponents. “She’s destroyed it. Starting on Day One, I will approve new drilling, new pipelines, new refineries, new power plants, new reactors. And we will slash the red tape. We will get the job done. We will create more electricity, also, for these new industries that can only function with massive electricity. And we’ll get it done.”
For nearly four years, Ms. Harris stood by Mr. Biden’s side as he implemented some of the most drastic federal measures to eliminate fossil fuels from the economy and American households.
While on the campaign stage and during her sit-down interview, Ms. Harris has not discussed the Biden administration’s power plant rule she endorsed that will shutter coal and natural gas plants in the coming decades, the tailpipe emissions rule that will force automakers to produce mostly electric vehicles, or efforts to eliminate or restrict gas appliances in American homes. She also has remained quiet about the administration’s efforts to curb oil and natural gas development on public lands and to halt some new natural gas exports.
Ms. Harris alluded to climate change policies only during her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention last month, when she warned that “fundamental freedoms” are at stake in the election, including “the freedom to breathe clean air, drink clean water and live free from the pollution that fuels the climate crisis.”
When asked on CNN why she shifted her position on fracking, Ms. Harris did not add specifics. Instead, she pivoted to the green energy and tax bill on which she cast the tiebreaking vote in her role as president of the Senate. The legislation, which Mr. Biden signed, devotes hundreds of billions of federal dollars to green energy projects.
“My values have not changed. I believe it is very important that we take seriously what we must do to guard against what is a clear crisis in terms of the climate. And to do that, we can do what we have accomplished thus far,” she said.
Some interest groups are dialing up the pressure on Ms. Harris to explain her positions.
The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers launched a late-August ad that asks whether Ms. Harris still supports a ban on gas-powered cars by 2035, as outlined during her 2019 presidential campaign, or the Biden-Harris tailpipe emissions rule that would force automakers to produce mostly electric cars by as early as 2032.
“Until the vice president says otherwise, we have to believe she still stands for everything that was in her 2019 policy plan and for every policy she co-sponsored as a senator. Unfortunately for American consumers, that would include a 100% ban on new gas car sales throughout the United States,” AFPM President and CEO Chet Thompson said.
Mr. Trump has broadcast a detailed energy policy and made EV mandates and oil production key topics on the campaign trail. Consumers should be able to choose the type of car they want, he said, and more oil and natural gas production will boost the economy.
Mr. Trump promised to tap into oil resources within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Proposed drilling in the protected area has sparked a long debate about whether the economic benefits outweigh the potential environmental damage.
In 2023, the Biden-Harris administration canceled drilling licenses granted during the Trump administration.
“Remember, we have more liquid gold under our feet than any other country by far,” Mr. Trump said during his Republican National Convention speech in July. “We are a nation that has the opportunity to make an absolute fortune with its energy. We have it, and China doesn’t.”
The Washington Times reached out to the Harris campaign for comment on whether Ms. Harris will disclose a detailed energy agenda before the election.
The 92-page Democratic platform vaguely outlines the party’s energy priorities, though it was ratified in July before Ms. Harris replaced Mr. Biden atop the ticket.
“Democrats reject the false choice between growing our economy and combating climate change; we can and must do both at the same time,” the platform says. “Democrats will rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement and go further, building a thriving, equitable, and globally competitive clean energy economy that puts workers and communities first, and leaves no one behind.”
Mr. Trump’s team said the energy policies implemented by Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris have hurt the nation’s economy and would worsen under a Harris administration.
“America was energy dominant in President Trump’s first term, and that’s why we had 1.4% inflation when he left office,” Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said. “Kamala Harris is a radical environmental extremist who wants to ban fracking and beg our adversaries to produce energy for us, which will make the cost of living in our country soar even higher.”
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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