With barely two weeks remaining until Election Day, Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign committed what critics called an unforced error on fracking.
In a recent interview with Politico, the Harris campaign’s new climate engagement director, Camila Thorndike, said voters concerned about climate change shouldn’t fear a Harris presidency.
“[Harris] is not promoting expansion [of fossil fuel drilling]. She’s just said that they wouldn’t ban fracking,” Thorndike said.
That appeared to take Harris back to her original and long-held position of opposing expanded fossil fuel use. Harris famously promised to ban fracking during her 2020 run for the White House. Harris reversed course once she became the Democratic nominee for president ,telling CNN in August, “I will not ban fracking.”
After Thorndike’s comments caught the attention of the Trump campaign and the press, Thorndike posted an updated statement on social media declaring Harris “doesn’t support banning fracking.” She repeated Harris’s comment from the presidential debate last month that her tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) “opened new fracking leases.”
Energy groups said Thorndike’s comment proves Harris can’t be trusted on the issue.
“The entire Harris campaign is a con,” scoffed Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association president and CEO David N. Taylor.
The White House approved only three offshore oil and gas lease sales through 2029. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said those sales were so the department could start supporting the offshore wind industry.
No offshore oil and gas leases were approved this year. The White House previously canceled all leases given out by the Trump administration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
President Joe Biden announced a “temporary pause” on new liquid natural gas (LNG) exports and export terminals in January. He cited climate change as the reason. A National Association of Manufacturers study said the LNG pause threatened 900,000 jobs. A federal judge overruled the pause months later.
Despite the administrative headaches, the U.S. energy sector was still able to make the U.S. the world’s largest producer of crude oil last year according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Russia ranked second followed by Saudi Arabia.
America also led the world in natural gas production – with a large portion of it coming from Pennsylvania. EIA statistics said the Keystone State was the second-largest supplier of natural gas in the country, behind only Texas. It was also the nation’s second-largest net supplier of total energy to other states.
But Taylor told DVJournal any gains by the oil and gas industry during the Biden-Harris administration were “despite the administration’s actions, not because of them.”
Energy groups see natural gas as key for future economic growth. A Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) analysis found the sector generated $40 billion of economic activity and supported more than 123,000 jobs in 2022. Those jobs paid an average of $97,482 per year.
“The resource is developed under one of the most stringent regulatory frameworks in the country, allowing Pennsylvania operators to lead in environmental performance, energy production and job creation,” MSC President David Callahan told DVJournal.
Republican Donald Trump consistently promoted his oil and gas position during Pennsylvania rallies.
“On day one I will tell Pennsylvania energy workers to frack, frack, frack, and drill, drill, drill, baby, drill,” he said at a recent rally in Scranton.
That message may be working.
Polls show Trump barely ahead of Harris in the race for Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral College votes. The RealClearPolitics poll average gave Trump an almost one-point lead. Harris hasn’t led in a survey of Pennsylvania voters since early October. The last three polls gave Trump a three-point lead.
Energy policy is also a key issue in the race between three-term U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) and GOP challenger Dave McCormick.
McCormick highlighted Casey’s previous support of cap-and-trade policies that the Beacon Hill Institute said in 2009 would seriously damage the economy. Casey said he was not in favor of a fracking ban.
Casey also recently released an ad that attempted to tie his energy policies to those of Trump’s. Republicans suggested it was proof Pennsylvania was slipping away from Democrats.
Another potential blow to Casey’s reelection campaign: Cook Political Report moved Pennsylvania’s Senate race from “Leans Democrat” to “Toss-up.” Polls have shown Casey’s lead slipped to within the margin of error.
