Kamala Harris and fossil fuel companies

Of all of the issues where Kamala Harris has flipped and flopped around between her stated policies as a prosecutor, a Senator, a Vice President, and now a candidate for the presidency, the topic of drilling for energy, including fracking, surely must have left the fossil fuel companies feeling like a fish that was prematurely dragged out of its lake too soon repeatedly. That subject came up again this week when CNN's Andrew Kaczynski (of all people) conducted a review of Harris' record, showing how she has totally reversed course (or "corrected" course) in an effort to convince swing state voters that she was not, in fact coming for all of their jobs, despite having promised on many occasions to do so. How well that sells with those voters remains to be seen, but it paints an ugly picture when distilled down in this fashion.

When Kamala Harris ran for president in 2019, she repeatedly warned oil companies they should be prepared to face hefty fines and even criminal prosecution under a future Harris administration for their role in contributing to climate change.

Now, as the Democratic nominee, Harris is highlighting the country’s record oil and gas production. She rarely talks about climate change, and, despite having been a vigorous supporter of the Green New Deal, her campaign’s website is light on climate policy details.

It’s a stark shift that illustrates the delicate politics of energy — but also how Harris has abandoned a number of progressive positions she held before joining Joe Biden’s ticket in 2020.

As a presidential candidate in 2019, Harris pledged to eliminate the filibuster in order to pass a Green New Deal, with strict deadlines for reducing fossil fuel use.

Kaczynski initially attempts to write Harris a bit of a hall pass, pointing out that she had been threatening to take oil and gas companies to court over "contributing to climate change" in 2019. She did this when she was running for President already. That much may be true, but she was running as a candidate in her own right, not as part of a Biden-Harris ticket. In that sense, one could interpret it as meaning that the intent to prosecute was still there, built into her political DNA. She said less about it has Biden's VP, but they were both still talking up the Green New Deal.

But with Biden on his way out the back door, Harris no longer has that albatross around her neck. She need have no fear of retribution from Scranton Joe because he is little more than a figurehead preparing to head for his forever vaction-home, most likely after a few well-timed pardons are entered into the books. She could be unleashing fire and brimstone upon the oil and gas industries today, letting them know that the Harris-Walz administration will hold the feet of the climate-wrecking drilling companies to the fire.

Instead, she's doing something else entirely. She's openly praising "the country’s record oil and gas production." This is a far cry from the Kamala Harris who pledged to go so far as to promise to eliminate the filibuster in order to pass the GND. Her current website is described as "light on climate change details." This turnaround hasn't been consistent throughout Harris's current run, either. Barely one month ago she told "Mother Jones" during an interview, “Let’s get them not only in the pocketbook, but let’s make sure there are severe and serious penalties for their behaviors.” (She was speaking of drilling companies.)

But now she wants to talk about our "record oil and gas production" and the downward impact it has had on lowering energy prices across the board. Are people actually going to buy this load of malarkey? You never know. Voters have fallen for worse bills of goods in the past.