Vice President Kamala Harris vowed Thursday that she would “not ban fracking” if elected president, a major shift from the position she took when she first ran for the White House.
“As vice president, I did not ban fracking, and I'm not going to ban fracking as president,” Harris said in her first interview since taking over as President Biden's top Democratic candidate.
Harris' latest position on fracking is the polar opposite of the stance she took on the oil and gas extraction technique during the 2019 Democratic presidential primary campaign.
But in an exchange with CNN's Dana Bash, the Democratic candidate insisted that he made his position on fracking “clear in the 2020 debates” and that he “will not ban fracking.”
“There's no question I'm in favor of a ban on fracking,” the then-presidential candidate told environmental activists during a CNN town hall in 2019.
The vice president's stance on fracking will be key to her ability to win Pennsylvania, an oil-rich battleground state whose 19 electoral votes will be at stake in November and could determine the winner of the election.
“In 2020, I made my position clear,” Harris said in an interview with CNN's Dana Bash. “Now it's 2024, and I'm not changing that position, and I'm not changing it now. I kept my promise, and I'll continue to keep it.”
When asked why she had changed her mind about fracking, Harris said, “My values haven't changed.”
The 59-year-old vice president went on to explain that he now believes it's possible for the government to allow fracking and still “avoid a clear climate crisis.”
“We've already created more than 300,000 clean energy jobs, and my experience as vice president knows we can do it without a ban on fracking,” Harris said.
“As vice president, I actually voted in a runoff to increase fracking releases,” she continued.
When asked again why she had changed her position, Harris reiterated her belief that fracking can coexist with a “clean energy economy.”
“What I've seen is that we can expand a growing and thriving clean energy economy without banning fracking,” Harris said.
This is an ongoing story, please check back for future updates.
