Former Vice President Kamala Harris changed course on a significant issue that she once touted in 2019.
On Friday, Harris said that she no longer supports a ban on fracking—a stark difference from her stance five years ago, when she told CNN, “There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.”
“And starting with what we can do on Day One around public lands, right?” Harris said. “And then there has to be legislation, but, yes, and this is something I’ve taken on in California. I have a history of working on this issue and to your point, we have to just acknowledge that the residual impact of fracking is enormous in terms of the health and safety of communities.”
However, she changed her view on the matter after joining the Biden Administration.
Fracking has been a significant issue for presidential candidates, especially in Pennsylvania— a critical swing state and a major gas producer.
Former President Donald Trump criticized Harris, declaring her to be the “ultra-liberal driving force behind every single Biden catastrophe.”
“She is a radical left lunatic who will destroy our country if she ever gets the chance to get into office,” Trump said. “She wants no fracking. You’re going to be paying a lot of money. You’re going to be paying so much. You’re going to say, ‘Bring back Trump.’”
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Pushing back on Trump’s comments, the vice president’s campaign claimed that the “Biden-Harris Administration passed the largest ever climate change legislation and under their leadership, America now has the highest ever domestic energy production.”
However, then-Senator Harris endorsed the Green New Deal, including a fracking ban.
“Trump’s false claims about fracking bans are an obvious attempt to distract from his own plans to enrich oil and gas executives at the expense of the middle class," the Harris campaign said, adding that Trump’s “Administration created 300,000 energy jobs, while Trump lost nearly a million.”
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