Vice President Kamala Harris, who presumably will be the Democratic nominee for President following Joe Biden’s withdrawal last week, apparently is not a fan of America’s oil and gas industry.
Even though Harris has not officially won the Democratic nomination yet (the convention will be held in August), her previous statements and positions indicate she will push for more regulations and laws to make finding and producing more hydrocarbons in the U.S. more difficult.
She served only four years in the Senate (2017-2021) as the junior Senator from California. She ran for President against Biden and other candidates but dropped out before the primaries began. Now, she is getting a chance to run as the Democratic candidate for President without obtaining any delegates or facing other potential candidates in a debate on the issues.
During her term in the Senate and as a presidential candidate, she made numerous statements opposing hydraulic fracturing, which has been a critical component of the rise in crude oil production from 5 million barrels just 15 years ago to more than 13 million barrels per day today.
Her opposition to hydraulic fracturing is probably an understatement because she said during one of the 2020 presidential debates, “No question, I am in favor of banning fracking.” She even sued the Obama administration over its plan to allow fracking off the Pacific Coast when she was the Attorney General for California.
Harris has opposed leasing federal lands (onshore and offshore) and granting licenses for interstate pipelines (such as the Keystone XL).
Harris began seeking retribution from oil companies operating in California while she was Attorney General and has used the phrase “environmental justice” many times in attempts to condemn their activities.
She has supported the far-left environmental agenda. In 2019, she was a co-sponsor of a bill called the Green New Deal. It failed to gain traction and never got out of committee. She cast the tiebreaking vote in the Senate for the massive climate change legislation called the Inflation Reduction Act, which provides billions of dollars for various programs intended to reduce emissions.
Voters know little about Kamala Harris and how she will manage the office of the President. There are only three months before the election.
Could Americans expect more of the same? Someone once said, “The spots on that leopard will not change.”
Alex Mills is the former President of the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers.
Alex Mills is the former President of the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers. The Alliance is the largest state oil and gas associations in the nation with more than 3,000 members in 305 cities and 28 states.
