Reconciling Kamala Harris's Fracking Positions is No Easy Task

“There is no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.” - Kamala Harris, 2019 CNN Town Hall

I wrote a piece over the weekend commenting on all the energy-related confusion coming from the Kamala Harris campaign, especially as it relates to her sudden, 180-degree shift from being pro-fracking ban to sort-of-anti-fracking ban. In doing so, I referred to quotes made recently in a Politico interview by Harris’s recently hired climate engagement director, Camila Thorndike.

On Monday, Thorndike attempted to clarify her remarks in that interview in which she said, “[Harris has] just said that they wouldn’t ban fracking and the fact that anyone could look up is that the IRA required leases, and that was not something that she promoted.”

Apparently realizing that final phrase had only expanded the confusion among readers and voters which Harris’s own comments on the subject had already caused, Thorndike attempted to clear the air in a post on her X account on Monday. There, Thorndike wrote, “I didn't explain myself clearly here. Contrary to Trump's claims, the VP has not banned fracking, doesn't support banning fracking, and in fact cast the tie-breaking vote on the biggest pro-climate law ever, which, yes, opened new fracking leases. People know that's her position.”

But, as I wrote on Saturday, people really don’t know what Harris’s position truly is, mainly because the candidate herself sticks religiously to an apparently memorized script that fails to offer real details that might provide assurance her sudden 180-degree turn on the fracking issue is more than a sort-of promise to be broken if she were to assume office next January. A lot of the skepticism about Harris’s very specific promise she will not “ban” fracking stems from the fact that she typically follows up with another memorized phrase that “my principles haven’t changed.”