Big Oil Asks Kamala Harris to Develop Her Energy and Climate Plans

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The U.S. oil industry and Republicans are calling on Kamala Harris to clarify her energy and climate policies, as the Democratic candidate tries to please her progressive base without alienating voters in shale areas like Pennsylvania, a crucial state.

On Thursday, the vice president said he no longer supports a ban on fracking, the technology that sparked the shale revolution. But Harris’ reversal has not quelled attacks from Donald Trump or US executives that it would hurt the country’s oil and gas sector.

The heads of the two largest U.S. oil lobby groups said the Democratic nominee must also say whether he will maintain or end a freeze on federal approvals for new liquefied natural gas plants and whether he supports restrictions on drilling by the Biden administration.

“Based on what we know about her past positions, the bills she’s sponsored and her past statements, she’s taken a pretty aggressive stance against the energy and oil and gas industry,” said Anne Bradbury, head of the American Exploration and Production Board.

“These are significant and major policy questions that affect every American family and business, and that voters deserve to better understand when they make their choice in November,” she said.

Mike Sommers, executive director of the American Petroleum Institute, Big Oil’s most powerful lobbying group, said Harris should say whether he will stick with the Biden administration’s policies that have unleashed “a regulatory onslaught the likes of which we have never seen this industry”.

Trump, the Republican nominee, has accused Harris of waging a “war on American energy” and has repeatedly blamed her and President Joe Biden for high fuel costs in recent years.

On Thursday, he vowed to roll back the Biden administration’s policies that “distort energy markets.” The former president has called climate change a hoax and his aides have said he would kill Biden’s signature climate legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act.

The debate over Harris’ energy policy comes as she and Trump court workers in Pennsylvania, a major shale gas producer that employs 72,000 workers — a potentially swing vote in a state Biden won in 2020.

Harris said in 2019 that he supported banning fracking, but told CNN on Thursday that he has backed away from that position and that the US could have “a thriving clean energy economy without banning fracking.”

U.S. oil and gas production hit record highs under Biden, even as clean energy capacity expanded rapidly.

But gas executives in particular were alarmed by a federal pause on building new LNG export plants that supply customers from Europe to Asia, saying the policy would further hamper US shale production.

Toby Rice, chief executive of Pennsylvania-based EQT, the largest US natural gas producer, said Harris should lift the restrictions, which he argued would compromise energy security.

“Ignoring her anti-fracking statement from four years ago for a second, can we talk about the recent LNG pause that was put in place this year?” he said. “This is a policy that has received massive criticism from all sides – our allies, industry and environmental champions. . . a step backwards for America’s climate and energy security.”

While Biden has put climate at the center of his and Harris’ 2020 campaign for the White House, Harris has been largely silent and made only a passing reference to climate change in his speech at the Democratic convention.

“It appears that the Harris campaign has concluded that it is safer to avoid antagonizing manufacturers or climate change activists by sidestepping these issues altogether,” said Kevin Book, managing director of ClearView Energy Partners.

Climate-focused voters are less upset than energy executives about Harris’ lack of explicit policy.

“Let’s be clear: The most important climate policy right now is defeating Donald Trump in November,” said Cassidy DiPaola of Fossil Free Media, a nonprofit organization. “All the nasty political details in the world won’t matter if the climate deniers control the White House.”

Last week, the political arms of the League of Conservation Voters, Climate Power and the Environmental Defense Fund unveiled a $55 million ad campaign supporting Harris in swing states focused on economic rather than climate issues.

Instead, Trump has courted oil chiefs who stand by his pledge to cut regulations and scrap subsidies for clean energy. His campaign received nearly $14 million from the industry in June, according to OpenSecrets, nearly double his haul of oil in May.

Additional reporting by Sam Learner