Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris leaned into the Biden administration’s platform on fossil fuel production in her debate Tuesday evening with Republican opponent and former President Donald Trump.
While insisting she’s reversed her previous promise to ban fracking for oil in the United States, she also reaffirmed her support of policies in the current administration that aim to do that.
Some analysts in the oil and natural gas industry said that her opinions on being supportive of the fracking industry as part of the Inflation Reduction Act are “disingenuous.”
“I will not ban fracking. I have not banned fracking as vice president of the United States. And, in fact, I was the tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which opened new leases for fracking,” said Harris in Tuesday’s debate in Philadelphia. “We’ve invested $1 trillion in the clean energy economy while also increasing domestic gas production to historic levels.
“We have to invest in diverse sources of energy so we reduce our reliance on foreign oil.”
Trump questioned Harris’ sincerity, criticizing a range of Biden-era oil and natural gas policies and predicting that if she wins the election, “fracking in Pennsylvania will end on Day One.”
A Wyoming energy trade group agrees.
“While Vice President Harris’ claims of supporting the oil and natural gas industry at last night’s debate are a welcome change, the administration she has been a part of the last four years must own its record of delays and disruptions to the industry,” said Ryan McConnaughey, a spokesman for the Petroleum Association of Wyoming (PAW). “And frankly, actions speak louder than words.
The oil and natural gas industry are huge economic drivers in Wyoming.
PAW's members range from 26 of the state’s top 30 producers to small mom-and-pop operators, accounting for more than 90% of Wyoming’s oil and natural gas production. Collectively, the group’s members generate more than $5 billion in annual economic activity and employ 19,000 workers.
Energy Independence
“No matter who wins the election in November, we need leaders who recognize the importance of American energy independence to our national security and economic prosperity,” McConnaughey said. “The U.S. oil and natural gas industry is poised to meet rising global energy demands safely and sustainably.”
An energy trade group head in Colorado who represents small energy developers in Wyoming and eight other energy-producing states labeled Harris’ support of the fossil fuel industry as disingenuous.
“The Biden-Harris administration has used every regulation and lever at its disposal to defund oil and gas investments, overregulate oil and natural gas development and slow down leasing on federal lands,” said Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance. “There were provisions in the IRA (Inflation Reduction Act) that tied oil and gas leasing to wind and solar permitting on federal land.
“She certainly isn’t supportive of fracking. There was nothing in the bill about fracking, but there were hundreds of billions of dollars that favored wind and solar development.”
Sgamma claimed that Harris tailored her remarks about the IRA to fit her own political views to win the critical swing state of Pennsylvania, which is one of the nation’s largest fracking states.
Fracking involves splitting open formations in bedrock with a pressurized liquid through which natural gas and oil flows to the earth’s surface more freely.
Disingenuous Support
“To claim that the IRA was supportive of oil and natural gas is disingenuous at best,” she said. “She voted for the bill that set it over the edge, and hundreds of billions of dollars to wind and solar and radical leftist organizations.”
Her mention of support for the IRA was a pivot to get votes in Pennsylvania, she said.
“We’d fully expect Harris to continue with her hostile policies toward the oil and natural gas industry. That’s why she voted for that bill. It doesn’t do anything for oil and natural gas,” Sgamma said. “She’s trying to pivot away and pander to the voters in Pennsylvania by pretending that the IRA has everything to do with oil and natural gas.”
Kevin Book, managing director of research with ClearView Energy Partners LLC, said that Harris has consistently touted domestic oil production records during her term in office with the Biden administration and her “pragmatic stance” with fracking.
A future Harris administration could find other ways to curtail or discourage oil and gas development without a fracking ban, Book told Cowboy State Daily.
These efforts could new limitations on access to federal lands, continue or expand Biden-era policies of leasing smaller and more fragmented parcels of those federal lands on stricter fiscal terms, and environmental rules that impose new capital obligations on operators.
Other efforts could include constraints on export infrastructure, new greenhouse gas surcharges and higher tax rates, he said.
A spokesman for the Wyoming Outdoor Council, a Lander-based conservation advocacy group that has previously supported ways to halt oil and natural gas leasing in Wyoming auctions on state land, was not immediately available to comment on Harris’ energy policies.
Pat Maio can be reached at pat@cowboystatedaily.com.
