Pennsylvania environmentalists are dismissing Kamala Harris’ statement defending her stance on fracking, saying her opposition to banning the practice divides voters in the key battleground state.
Fracking is just one of the changes Harris was asked about in her prime-time interview with CNN, after discarding several left-wing positions she adopted during her 2019 presidential campaign.
“My values have not changed,” Harris told the network. “We can grow and we can drive a prosperous economy based on clean energy without banning fracking.”
“Their values haven’t changed, except their values have changed,” scoffed Karen Feridun, co-founder of the Pennsylvania-based Better Path Coalition.
“She was very clear that she supported the Green New Deal, which banned fracking, and then all of a sudden she stopped doing that. That’s not a good position. And I think it’s a bad assumption that Pennsylvania is never going to vote for someone who is against fracking and plans to ban it,” he told DailyMail.com on Friday, as environmentalists discussed the issue in online forums.
“It’s something that doesn’t fit with having strong values of protecting the planet, so saying that seems hypocritical,” he fumed.
Vice President Kamala Harris said her “values haven’t changed” when asked about her opposition to banning fracking. The issue has particular resonance in Pennsylvania, a battleground state.
Maya van Rossum of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, where there are regional fracking bans set by a regulatory board, said: “It is the responsibility of our government leaders, whether elected or appointed to office, to take a stand based on facts, science and reality and do what is best for the common good, present and generational.”
“It is amoral and unprincipled for anyone in a position of power to support fracking,” he said.
Political pundits who provided spot analysis of Harris’s interview noted the obvious importance of Pennsylvania, where Harris has been in a virtual tie with Donald Trump in the polls since snatching the Democratic nomination from Joe Biden, who failed to push for a fracking ban while funneling billions into green technology initiatives.
The state has 19 electoral votes and the most hotly contested prize of the election. It is among the “blue wall” states that Trump won in 2016 and Joe Biden recaptured in 2020. Polls are tight, and Trump held a campaign rally in Johnstown on Friday night. Western Pennsylvania is where companies are exploiting the Marcellus Shale to capture natural gas through hydraulic fracturing (fracking), using a chemical mix that environmentalists say puts water supplies at risk.
But according to Feridun, the issue of fracking is not so clear.
“There’s a difference between what, for example, the unions in this state want and what the public wants, and so I think the construction unions have played an outsized role in a lot of things having to do with energy policy in the state… I can only imagine there was some pressure on her to stick with Biden’s position,” he speculated.
Harris defended Biden’s stance on fracking in the 2020 vice presidential debate
Harris said she would not ban fracking, a process that is part of the country’s energy boom but is a target for environmentalists who fear the impact on drinking water and other risks.
CNN fact checker Daniel Dale addressed Harris’ claim that she had to be “clear” about her stance in a 2020 debate
There aren’t many recent polls on the topic. But a 2022 Pennsylvania Energy Survey by Muhlenberg College revealed a close divide.
When asked about extracting natural gas from shale deposits in the state, 19 percent of Pennsylvanians strongly supported it, while another 29 percent strongly supported it, for a total of 48 percent.
There were also 19 percent who were opposed, 25 percent who were “strongly opposed,” which is a slightly lower percentage at 44 percent. Eight percent were unsure.
But while support was unchanged from six years earlier, those who “somewhat” oppose it increased by three percentage points and those who “strongly” oppose it increased by nine percentage points.
Harris was also rebuked by CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale, who rose to fame by debunking false claims by Donald Trump in 2016.
Harris told CNN’s Dana Bash: “I made it clear on the debate stage in 2020 that I would not ban fracking. As vice president, I did not ban fracking. As president, I will not ban fracking.”
Her interviewer then confronted her with her statement from 2019, during the primaries, when she said that “there’s no question that I’m in favor of banning fracking” and that she would do so on her first day in office.
“I made my position very clear in 2020. We are in 2024 and I have not changed that position nor will I do so in the future. I kept my word and I will keep it,” he said.
“The conclusion of the fact check is that she did not actually make clear in a 2020 debate that she had changed her previous support for banning fracking,” he said. saying.
“At no point does she make clear that she had abandoned her previous support for banning fracking; rather, she repeated that Joe Biden, the front-runner for the Democratic ticket at the time, would not ban fracking,” he noted on air Thursday night.
Among those who complained online was former Pennsylvania House candidate Ginny Kerslake.
“Ugh! I’m listening to @MSNBC and hearing them suggest that Harris needs to address fracking because “it’s a huge job creator in Pennsylvania.” No. It’s not. But it does bring great harm. @KamalaHarris @TimWalz @KamalaHQ,” he wrote.