Vice President Kamala Harris has tried to cast herself as a supporter of fracking when asked about the topic, but she often omits key context in her defensive talking points. [emphasis, links added]
Harris said in 2019 that there was “no question” that fracking should be banned. Pointing to her decisive vote on the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) as proof that she now supports oil and gas development.
However, the Biden-Harris administration has slowed or otherwise undermined progress on oil and gas leasing that would have been required under the bill in exchange for green energy leasing.
“So my values haven't changed. I'm going to discuss everybody – at least every point you make. But we're specifically going to talk about fracking because we're in Pennsylvania. I made it clear in 2020 that I don't Will ban fracking. As Vice President of the United States, I have not banned fracking. [she doesn’t have the power]”, Harris said in response to a question about her multiple policy reversals during Tuesday night's debate with former President Donald Trump.
“In fact, I was the deciding vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which opened up new leases for fracking.”
During an interview with CNN's Dana Bash, Harris made a similar statement in response to a question about her stance on fracking.
Kamala Harris: “No question about it. I'm in favor of banning fracking.”
This should be very popular in Pennsylvania. pic.twitter.com/a5vcp4HBWz
– End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) July 22, 2024
Specifically, the IRA stipulates that to create new offshore wind leases, the federal government must have provided offshore oil and gas leases worth no less than 60 million acres in the previous yearaccording to Columbia Law School's IRA tracking system.
The provision was the work of then-West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, who insisted that such language be included in the IRA during negotiations for the bill, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The bill passed without a Republican vote after Manchin and Arizona independent Sen. Kristen Sinema won support for the bill.
Additionally, the IRA has linked onshore oil and gas activities, often involving fracking, to green energy development on federal lands, according to E&E News.
The law also requires the federal government to make 2 million acres available for oil and gas leases one year before issuing permits for wind and solar projects.
However, the Biden-Harris administration has also eliminated the possibility of swaths of the country's public lands being used for oil and gas development.
Must see: @danaperino The Biden administration's push for green energy is driving up inflation while diverting taxpayer dollars to wealthy Democratic donors:
“The American people have understood that Biden's green energy policies are causing inflation… pic.twitter.com/LMZzMt3dgS
— Conservative War Machine (@WarMachineRR) June 26, 2024
In Alaska alone, the government has restricted future development on tens of millions of acres of land, including about half of the Alaska National Petroleum Reserve.
After the bill became law, the Biden-Harris administration began slowing down five-year leases covering 2024 to 2029an administrative tool in the oil and gas sector that stymied Manchin's compromises.
Ultimately, the administration finalized a five-year offshore oil and gas leasing program in December 2023, more than a year later than originally planned, and offered at least 60 million acres in three rounds of lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico, The lowest sales numbers of any five-year plan in U.S. history.
In contrast, the Biden-Harris administration has released an ambitious five-year offshore wind leasing plan, calling for more than a dozen offshore wind leasing schemes to be signed by 2029.
Another lease sale during the Biden-Harris era also suggests A future Harris-Walz administration may not be as pliant to oil and gas development as the vice president suggested on the debate stage.
Read the break from The Daily Caller
