Democratic nominee Kamala Harris praised U.S. oil and gas production during the presidential debate with Republican Donald Trump on Tuesday night, a move meant to fend off GOP criticism of her climate agenda but one that’s likely to anger environmentalists backing her candidacy.
“We have got to invest in diverse sources of energy so we reduce our reliance on foreign oil,” Harris said. “We have had the largest increase in domestic oil production in history because of an approach that recognizes that we cannot overrely on foreign oil.”
Oil production has broken records during President Joe Biden and Vice President Harris’ time in power, reaching more than 13 million barrels a day this year. Domestic natural gas production is also at record levels.
At the debate moderated by ABC News in Philadelphia, Harris touted her tie-breaking vote as vice president to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, the landmark legislation signed by Biden in 2022 that provides incentives for clean energy projects but also requires new oil and gas leases on public lands and in public waters. The vice president also vowed to take action to fight climate change.
Trump pointed to Harris’ past opposition to fracking — an oil and gas drilling process that’s largely responsible for record U.S. production volumes — during the Democratic presidential primary in 2019.
Though presidents cannot unilaterally ban fracking, Trump said the drilling process “in Pennsylvania will end on Day 1” of a Harris presidency. In response, Harris said she will not ban fracking. The issue is closely watched in Pennsylvania, a critical swing state and one of the biggest gas-producing states nationally.
The debate arrived amid a steady stream of Republican attacks against Harris’ energy track record, including her support for the Inflation Reduction Act and past endorsement of the Green New Deal, a nonbinding congressional resolution that calls for aggressive climate action, guaranteed jobs for Americans and other progressive wish-list items.
The contest featured heated exchanges, with Trump calling Harris a “Marxist,” blaming Democratic rhetoric for his July 13 assassination attempt, repeating an unsubstantiated claim that migrants are eating pets in Ohio and saying the U.S. “has gone to hell.” The two sparred over abortion, immigration, the U.S military withdrawal in Afghanistan and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
But fracking and energy issues flared continually during the debate.
Since entering the race roughly six weeks ago, Harris has broadly pledged to boost clean energy and “hold polluters accountable to secure clean air and water for all,” while steering clear of more detailed positions.
On Tuesday night, Harris pointed to Trump’s past comments that climate change is a “hoax.” She called climate change “very real.”
“The young people of America care deeply about this issue,” Harris said. “We have invested a trillion dollars in a clean energy economy while we have also increased domestic gas production to historic levels.”
Trump did not directly speak to plans to address climate change.
The Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund and some other environmentalists applauded her performance Tuesday. But certain green groups are looking for more from Harris on energy, saying she must speak boldly on climate action.
“She needs to highlight the contrast between her and Trump,” said Michael Greenberg of Climate Defiance in a statement after the debate. “You cannot call climate an existential threat and boast about increasing production of the thing that causes it.”
A statement after the debate from the Sunrise Movement underscored the risk Harris was taking with her embrace of increased fossil fuel production.
“Harris spent more time promoting fracking than laying out a bold vision for a clean energy future,” said Sunrise communications director Stevie O’Hanlon.
A recent New York Times/Siena College poll indicates some trouble for Harris among young Americans. The poll gives the Democrat only a 1-point edge in a head-to-head matchup with Trump among voters 18 to 29 years of age — less than President Joe Biden’s 60 percent estimated share of that voting bloc in 2020.
The oil industry’s biggest trade group, the American Petroleum Institute, in a Tuesday posting on X, expressed some satisfaction that “both candidates have recognized the importance of hydraulic fracturing” — the formal name for fracking. The group urged policymakers to turn to API’s goals of speeding up environmental permits, approving more natural gas exports and expanding drilling tied to public lands and waters.
Energy prices
If Trump wins in November, the former president is expected to bolster fossil fuels. He blasted Biden’s rejection of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, a project that would ship Canadian crude to U.S. destinations. Trump also criticized the Biden administration’s decision not to take a tougher stance in 2021 toward the now-defunct Nord Stream 2 — a natural gas project that was rejected by Germany after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
On Tuesday, Trump said he’s a “fan” of solar energy but argued that the large land use demands for the technology are an environmental risk.
Recent polling gives Harris a slight edge nationally, but contests in seven battleground states that are likely to decide the November election remain competitive — including Pennsylvania.
While some environmentalists have ratcheted up calls for Harris to make ambitious climate commitments, energy and climate change are not ranked as a top issue for many voters.
According to the New York Times/Siena College poll, climate change is the top issue for only 1 percent of registered voters. Together, inflation and the economy are the top issues for more than a quarter of voters, the poll found.
The next president will have significant influence over the energy sector’s future and the U.S. effort to decarbonize to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Scientists say temperature rise is expected to easily pass global targets absent a transition away from fossil fuels and major cuts to emissions, creating more severe weather, which in turn could spark problems including mass migration and food shortages.
This year is likely to be the hottest on record.
On Tuesday, Trump accused Harris of spiking energy costs for Americans. That attack line doesn’t line up with some current pricing trends, though higher energy costs have been an issue during Biden’s presidency amid global conflicts and inflation.
Prices at the pump are in line with historical averages and trending downward. AAA put the average price of regular gasoline Tuesday at $3.26 a gallon, which is largely in line with prices over the past 15 years. Brent crude, a global oil benchmark, had its lowest settlement price in almost three years Tuesday.
Natural gas prices have plummeted and stayed low following a huge spike in 2022 that coincided with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Electricity prices, meanwhile, have undoubtedly risen — by roughly 20 percent since late 2020, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration — and show few signs of falling. Experts attribute that to increased heating and cooling costs due to climate change, increased wildfire threats to the grid and added costs linked to the clean energy build-out.
The next president will be tasked with administering billions of dollars of unspent Department of Energy money required by the Inflation Reduction Act and the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law. That funding, which has transformed DOE from a technology seed funder into a commercialization giant, will affect the development of new energy sectors like green hydrogen, carbon capture, and advanced nuclear.
Experts say Harris would likely push forward existing programs at DOE and EPA with decarbonization in mind. Others say a Trump victory could mean retooling DOE to benefit fossil fuel producers. The next president also will decide how quickly efficiency rules go out the door for appliances like home furnaces and stoves.
Trump has pledged to boost U.S. fossil fuel production further if he wins, and he claimed it would have been higher had he been in office in recent years.
The two candidates had been trading jabs about fracking since Harris rose to the top of the ticket, so it was no surprise that it came up Tuesday night. The fracking-driven drilling boom has made Pennsylvania the No. 2 gas-producing state in the country and fostered job growth in related industries. But it is unpopular with many people in cities and suburbs in the politically divided state.
In 2019, when running for the Democratic presidential nomination, Harris said she supported a nationwide ban on fracking. She has since walked that back.
“I will not ban fracking,” Harris said Tuesday.
A president can’t impose a blanket ban, but he or she could float regulations to stifle drilling and production.
Reporter Mike Soraghan contributed.
