Vice President Kamala Harris will not call for a ban on fracking if elected president, a campaign official told The Hill on Friday.
Harris’ position on not supporting a ban on fracking is a departure from the position she took when she last ran for president.
She is one of several Democrats vying for the 2020 presidential nomination, but told CNN, “There’s no question I’m in favor of a ban on fracking.”
But since then, she has joined the Biden campaign and administration, neither of which support a ban on fracking.
Republicans, including former President Trump, have highlighted Harris’ 2019 stance since she became the party’s leading candidate after Biden dropped out of the race.
“She doesn’t want fracking,” Trump told supporters at a rally in Charlotte, N.C. this week. “You’re going to pay a lot of money. You’re going to pay a lot of money. You’re going to say, ‘Bring back Trump.'”
A Harris campaign spokesman fired back, saying, “Trump’s false claims about a fracking ban are a clear attempt to distract from his agenda to enrich oil and gas executives at the expense of the middle class.”
“The Biden-Harris Administration passed the largest climate change bill in history, and under their leadership, the United States now has the highest domestic energy production in history,” the spokesperson said in an email. “The current Administration has created 300,000 energy jobs, while the Trump Administration lost nearly 1 million, and his Project 2025 would undo the great progress made over the past four years.”
The Heritage Foundation think tank’s plan, “Project 2025,” is not directly linked to the Trump campaign and was written in part by former Trump administration officials, but Trump has sought to distance himself from the plan.
Fracking is a technique for extracting oil and gas that has been linked to water pollution and other pollution. The candidates’ positions on the issue could affect their standing in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state that’s also a major gas producer.
