By It appears that the Harris campaign has no idea what its stance on fracking is supposed to be. Camila Thorndike, a senior climate adviser for the Harris-Walz campaign, has retracted her recent comments suggesting that Vice President Kamala Harris would oppose future oil and gas drilling as president. This move appears to reverse her earlier statements, adding to the ongoing confusion around Harris’s stance on energy policy.
In a statement released on Monday, Thorndike expressed regret over her earlier remarks to Politico, where she indicated that Harris was not in favor of expanding oil drilling and hinted at the vice president’s dissatisfaction with the fossil fuel leasing provision in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. Thorndike, who serves as Harris’s climate engagement director, said, “I didn’t explain myself clearly here,” clarifying that, contrary to claims made by former President Donald Trump, Harris has not banned fracking, does not support a ban on fracking, and even cast the tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which allowed new fracking leases.
The statement came after CNN reporter Andrew Kaczynski reported that the Harris camp had begun “walking back” her support for fracking on the campaign trail.
Harris campaign aide seems to be walking back her support for fracking on campaign trail – a top climate campaign staffer told PoliticoPro notes she’s not promoting expanding it and said she didn’t promote increased leases for fracking in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
But… pic.twitter.com/EqFKgNg0nR
— Andy Kaczynski (@KFILE) October 21, 2024
The Oil and Gas Association did not take too kindly to the change in position.
So Harris’s new position in Oct is she now opposes fracking and no longer supports her position in July when she changed her position to support fracking which was subsequently a change in her prior, prior position of June which was to oppose fracking?
Got it. https://t.co/hHrDu7DZ6o
— US Oil & Gas Association (@US_OGA) October 21, 2024
Despite “Thorndike’s latest clarification, it remains unclear how her revised statement aligns with her previous comments. The Washington Free Beacon reported that Thorndike did not respond to requests for further clarification.
The outlet noted that Thorndike’s flip-flopping underscores the Harris-Walz campaign’s broader struggle to message on energy issues. Although Harris regularly pushed far-left climate policies—like a nationwide electric vehicle mandate, the Green New Deal, and a fracking ban—before replacing President Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee, she has since disavowed those past positions and sought to take more moderate stances.
Harris has touted rising levels of domestic oil production and highlighted that the Inflation Reduction Act requires fossil fuel leases during campaign events.
“I cast the tie-breaking vote that actually increased leases for fracking as vice president. So I’m very clear about where I stand,” Harris told CNN in August.
‘My position is that we have got to invest in diverse sources of energy so we reduce our reliance on foreign oil,’ Harris added a month later during her debate with former president Donald Trump. ‘We have had the largest increase in domestic oil production in history because of an approach that recognizes that we cannot over-rely on foreign oil.'”
During her run for president, Harris said multiple times that she’d ban fracking, an issue that could cost her the important state of Pennsylvania and the presidency.
UNEARTHED VIDEO: Kamala Harris on Jimmy Fallon.
Committed to passing the Green New Deal & “finally putting an end to FRACKING once and for all.”
No way this person now supports fracking. That’s crazy talk.
Fallon: “MamalaKamala just don’t give a frack!”pic.twitter.com/RBZ7ONqDSe
— Tim Murtaugh (@TimMurtaugh) September 21, 2024
Thorndike, a self-proclaimed “climate hype girl for democracy” was poached by the Kamala Harris campaign from the climate change group Rewiring America, which has been described as “a massive left-wing dark money network” that played a major role in the Democratic attempts to ban gas stoves.
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