Harris’ current tactic of staying silent is a classic bait-and-switch. She initially proposes moderate energy policies during election season, only to pivot to extreme climate change positions at the earliest opportunity. Her energy policy decisions are driven by the misguided notion of climate change aimed at appeasing her far-left environmental base, which provides substantial financial support to her campaign, the Democratic Party and the climate change agenda.
Even former NASA astronauts disagree with their agency’s stance on the “unwarranted claims about the role of carbon dioxide in global warming.” Additionally, over “1,600 scientists, including two Nobel laureates, have signed a declaration saying ‘there is no climate emergency.’”
It's important to remember that before she ended her 2019 presidential campaign to join Joe Biden’s ticket, Harris' stance on energy policies was already shaping the inflationary challenges we face today. She told a CNN town hall, "there’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking… even, on private property, supporting a ban on any new oil and gas infrastructure from being built.”
Harris also favors a Biden-Harris EPA mandate requiring “50% of all new car sales are electric by 2030, despite nearly half of all current electric vehicle (EVs) owners indicating plans to switch back to petroleum vehicles at a time when manufacturers of those vehicles are losing money on each one produced.”
In reality, most EVs are a financial disaster for carmakers and consumers. Furthermore, Harris fully endorses the Green New Deal. Of course she would; Harris and her VP choice, Governor Tim Walz, have zero private industry experience.
Governor Walz is on record opposing fracking, supporting bans on gasoline vehicles, and signing a law requiring that Minnesota shut down even natural gas power plants and generate only “carbon-free” electricity by 2040. That track record strongly suggests that a Harris-Walz administration would be a harmful expansion of Biden-Harris administration energy policies.
Energy-intensive industries like farming, mining and manufacturing, America’s economic backbone, would suffer, resulting in job losses and soaring costs for food, goods and services.
Harris’ home state of California now has some of the highest electricity prices in the continental United States. California serves as an example of a quasi-Green New Deal approach, where grid-scale battery energy storage systems are technologically limited to storing electricity for no more than eight hours. Additionally, the mining of rare earth metals and minerals essential for EVs, solar panels and wind turbines results in severe environmental impacts and often involves child labor and other human rights violations.
Harris has not released a detailed climate platform or substantial energy positions. These vague policy positions have nonetheless helped her gain the support of major left-wing climate NGOs. Their vision includes eliminating fossil fuels, phasing out gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles and machinery, relying solely on toxic solar panels and wind turbines for electricity, and moving toward an all-electric society.
Where have these policies led California? The state has the highest poverty and unemployment rates in the U.S. and remains intensely hostile to all forms of fossil fuel, rare earth metals and minerals mining, and even nuclear and hydroelectric power.
Ten facts illustrate how Harris’ endorsement of California’s energy policies could result in significant damage to the entire country if she becomes president:
“Since 2008, wind & solar have dramatically increased their share of California’s generation mix (leading to increased blackouts); also since 2008 California’s residential electricity prices have risen more in absolute terms than any state; the state’s residential electricity prices have risen more on a percentage basis than any state; California electricity use has fallen since 2008 more than any other state; California electricity prices are far higher than the rest of the U.S.; in early 2024, 3.4M California ratepayers were behind on their utility bills, with total outstanding balances of $2.2B; the State’s gasoline and diesel fuel prices are 32% higher than the U.S. average; since 2000, California’s gasoline prices have increased faster than the rest of the U.S.; and lastly, according to the United States Geological Survey, the Los Angeles Basin ‘has one of the highest concentrations of crude oil in the world,’ yet a ban will take place on hydraulic fracturing beginning in October’” 2024.
These regressive energy policies will devastate poor and middle class families, fuel further inflation, deepen economic alienation for most Americans, and undermine our ability to use energy as a soft power tool against countries like Russia, China and Iran.
We find ourselves in a post-reality era, especially regarding energy. Whether you dislike Trump, support him, or simply vote for him out of necessity, it’s essential to recognize the numerous documented ways Biden, Harris and Walz have made it more challenging to produce oil and gas and permit new nuclear power plants.
Rather than allowing Washington political elites to cling to power and shifting Modern Monetary Theory once debt and blackouts become the norm, wise Americans will vote for reliable energy, a stable electrical grid with low costs, and a balanced approach that doesn't base energy policy decisions solely on climate change knowing the U.S. remains closely tied to the extensive use of fossil fuels for the foreseeable future.
Given their lack of energy expertise, lack of business experience, past actions and current policy indications, Harris and Walz do not appear prepared to assume the power of national governance.
Todd Royal earned his M.P.P. from the School of Public Policy at Pepperdine University. He is program manager for research development at the Southeast Nuclear Council and host of its Nuclear Perspectives webinar.
Robert G. Kaufman, Ph.D., is the Robert and Katheryn Dockson Professor of Public Policy at Pepperdine University and specializes in American foreign policy, national security, international relations, and America politics.