The following OpEd, by ConservAmerica President Jeff Kupfer, appeared in the Pittsburgh Gazette:
In early 2019, a few weeks after she announced her candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination, Kamala Harris signed on as an original co-sponsor of the Green New Deal. That resolution set a goal to meet “100 percent of US power demand in the U.S. through clean, renewable and zero emission energy sources” within 10 years. It was a target that no serious energy analyst believed was feasible.
Among all the election noise, voters deserve at least some substance, and one topic especially relevant for Western Pennsylvania is energy.
Only Texas, which is five times larger than the commonwealth, produces more energy. Almost 5% of all jobs in Pennsylvania are in the energy sector and industry estimates that oil and has contributes more than $75 billion to the economy.
Against fracking
Having joined the anti-fracking Green New Deal, later in the campaign, she told a CNN town hall “There’s no question. I’m in favor of banning fracking.” At that time, it was estimated that about two-thirds of natural gas production and more than half of oil production in the U.S. used hydraulic fracturing.
After she dropped out the race and became Joe Biden’s vice-presidential nominee, Harris changed her tune — or at least adopted the policies from the top of the ticket. In her 2020 debate with Mike Pence, she declared that Biden would not ban fracking and did not support the Green New Deal.
Since that time, Harris has stood firmly behind the administration’s approach to energy and climate policy. In August 2022, she cast the deciding vote for the Inflation Reduction Act, which the president later hailed as “the most aggressive action ever — ever, ever, ever — in confronting the climate crisis and strengthening our economic — our energy security.”
Now that she is the presumptive Democratic nominee, former president Donald Trump has taken aim at her record. At a recent campaign event in Charlotte, NC, he declared, “she wants no fracking.” He then warned his supporters that because of that policy, “you’re going to be paying so much. You’re going to say, bring back Trump.”
Harris’ campaign responded with a statement that “Trump’s false claims about fracking bans are an obvious attempts to distract from his own plans to enrich oil and gas executives at the expense of the middle class.” That statement reflected her comments at her first campaign rally in Wisconsin, where her only mention of energy was a criticism of Trump.
Now Politico reports that her “campaign pledged the likely Democratic presidential nominee would not ban fracking, rejecting what it called ‘false’ accusations by Donald Trump.”
Attacks, not solutions
The narrative of attacking energy companies rather than focusing on ways to achieve durable solutions is something that we have seen over and over again.
Earlier this year, Bucks County became Pennsylvania’s first governmental entity to sue oil and gas companies for alleged damages related to climate change. And a few months ago, an out-of-state activist organization attempted to recruit Allegheny County to file a similar lawsuit.
The Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association argued that these lawsuits won’t solve climate change, but will only “drive up the cost of energy for Pennsylvanians, waste taxpayer dollars, and demonize an industry that is a crucial economic driver for our state.”
Regardless of what one thinks of the legal merits of these cases (in July, a Baltimore judge thew out the city’s lawsuit concluding that it wasn’t a state issue), it’s clear that these efforts do not get the country any closer to a clean energy future.
At this point, voters can be excused for not knowing what to think about Harris. If she does end up in the Oval Office, will they get a continuation of the Biden administration policies?
Or will they get the earlier version of Harris, the one who went out of her way to curry favor with progressives? Will she, for instance, continue the “pause” on liquified natural gas exports? And as a former state attorney general, will her administration pursue legal remedies and damages against energy companies?
Builders Guild of Western Pennsylvania executive director Jeff Nobers illustrated this uncertainty when he told Politico that Harris “really needs to have face-to-face conversations with union leaders in the areas most affected by this and go on the record of being a supporter and proponent of natural gas — not just someone who won’t ban fracking.”
Harris’s vision
One of these days, Harris will come to Pittsburgh for a campaign rally. And when that happens, let’s hope – both in her public comments and in any private conversations – that she leaves no doubt about her vision for energy and climate in the U.S.
Her approach will impact Pennsylvania’s economy and the country’s economic and national security. Voters deserve to know.
Jeffrey Kupfer, an adjunct faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College, is a former acting deputy secretary in the U.S. Energy Department and former special assistant to the president for economic policy. His previous article was “The moratorium on exporting LNG hurts this state and Europe too.”
First Published: August 3, 2024, 5:30 a.m., Pittsburgh Gazette