Kamala Harris ran for president five years ago on a progressive platform that included the Green New Deal and banning fracking nationwide.
But now that she’s even closer to getting to the White House, it’s unclear if she’s still interested in pursuing those priorities. Allies and others expect her plans to have shifted.
In the time since Harris declared in a CNN town hall that “there’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking” and offshore drilling and supported ending the Senate filibuster to enact the Green New Deal, a lot has changed. Most notably, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest climate change legislation in history.
After running to Joe Biden’s left in the primary, Harris joined him as his running mate, in a campaign in which Biden explicitly rejected the Green New Deal and a fracking ban.
Biden’s administration issued almost 50 percent more permits to drill for oil and natural gas on federal land than that of former President Donald Trump, and oil and gas production in the U.S. has grown each year.
As vice president, Harris has been an ally to Biden and his agenda, and has not pushed for the more progressive policies.
But now that she has the opportunity to set her own agenda, it’s unclear if she’ll return to the ideas that drove her unsuccessful campaign for the 2020 Democratic nomination.
In the days since Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and Harris gathered enough delegate commitments to secure the Democratic nomination, she hasn’t said if she still supports the Green New Deal or a fracking ban.
Nor has she said whether she still wants the federal Justice Department to prosecute fossil fuel companies over climate change, another 2020 campaign promise. She also supported banning plastic straws.
Harris’ campaign didn’t respond to multiple requests from POLITICO’s E&E News to clarify whether she supports those policies.
Trump and his allies have sought to take advantage of that vacuum as part of their quest to define her on the national stage.
“She co-sponsored the $100 trillion Green New Scam, with a goal of completely abolishing the oil, coal and natural gas industries, which would reduce the United States to a third-world country,” Trump said at a rally in Charlotte this week.
Referring to Harris’ promise to ban fracking, he continued, “You’re going to be paying a lot of money. You’re going to be paying so much, you’re going to say, ‘Bring back Trump, please, please. Please, bring back Trump. We want Trump. We want some common sense, please.”
The National Republican Senatorial Committee pointed to her Green New Deal and fracking stances in a memo this week laying out possible attack lines against her.
And the Green New Deal and fracking ban play prominently in a video released by Dave McCormick, the Republican Senate candidate in gas-heavy Pennsylvania, which presents Harris as the “most liberal” presidential nominee ever and shows incumbent Sen. Bob Casey (D) complimenting her.
‘Largely symbolic’
Congressional Democrats are doubtful that she still holds the same opinions on the Green New Deal and fracking.
“I think the Green New Deal has proved itself to be largely symbolic … I always thought it made the mistakes of trying to redo the whole economy, which makes the climate problem even harder to solve. So I don’t think that’s going to be an issue,” said Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.), who supports Harris and hasn’t backed the Green New Deal.
Peters noted the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act — which Harris supports — and the recommendations from the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis as big developments in climate policy since the Green New Deal’s 2019 introduction.
“I think that those are probably better hints into what a presidential candidate is,” he said.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who also ran in the 2020 Democratic presidential race and supports the Green New Deal, said he expects Harris to develop comprehensive energy and climate policies of her own going into the election.
“I’ve already heard from her campaign team that they’re bringing together sound, pragmatic energy policies that are going to support America’s competitiveness, support America’s foreign policy priorities, make America stronger economically and create jobs,” he said.
‘Energy tightrope’
Analysts, meanwhile, expect Harris’ energy and climate policies to closely follow those of Biden’s term.
“When you’re governing, you get a very different perspective on issues,” said Paul Bledsoe, a lecturer at American University’s Center for Environmental Policy and former Senate aide.
“As vice president, she obviously recognized that natural gas has played a huge role in keeping U.S. energy prices low,” he continued. “So it’s obvious to me that she will essentially continue Biden’s policies of reducing overall emissions through clean energy technologies.”
Bledsoe said Harris might also seek to differentiate herself through policies like a more aggressive push to cut methane emissions in the oil and natural gas industry — something that can be controversial but is not a ban.
RBC Capital Markets said in a note to clients this week that Harris is likely to face an “energy tightrope” between exciting progressive voters and uniting the Democratic Party, particularly in energy-heavy key swing states like Pennsylvania.
“The key question now is whether she reclaims her more progressive climate positions in hopes of energizing the progressive base and young voters or stays in the Biden energy and climate swim lanes in order to gain electoral advantage in must-win Rust Belt states like Pennsylvania,” it said.
ClearView Energy Partners said it expects “a stepped-up emphasis on climate policy,” but not quite a return to Harris’ 2020 campaign, noting issues like the Keystone State.
“Even though media outlets have recapped Harris’ original sponsorship of the Green New Deal and the anti-fracking position she took during her 2020 Presidential run, we think those data points may not be ideal proxies for her future choices,” the analysis firm told clients.
“We still do not expect Harris to propose significant changes to Biden’s energy agenda between now and the election.”
