How Kamala Harris's comments on fracking have shifted

Former president Donald Trump used the national debate stage to argue a Kamala Harris presidency would impose a national ban on fracking and devastate the fossil fuel industry. The 2024 Democratic nominee denied any plans for a ban, saying that despite voicing support for one in 2019, her actions as vice president show she has shifted her position.

"Fracking, she's been against it for 12 years," Trump said on September 10 (archived here). "If she won the election, fracking in Pennsylvania will end on day one," he added. "Oil will be dead, fossil fuel will be dead."

Hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, boosted American oil and gas production, initially bringing jobs to the key swing state of Pennsylvania. But the practice also raises environmental and health concerns for communities living alongside the wells, it requires lots of water and has been linked to small earthquakes.

Still, Harris says she has no plans to ban the extraction method -- which can access hard-to-reach fossil fuels.

"I will not ban fracking, I have not banned fracking as vice president of the United States," she said during the debate.

This response did not deter social media users who echoed Trump's claims in the hours following the debate -- including in a newly released ad by his campaign team on X.

"Here's a reminder of one of Harris' biggest lies that the ABC moderators let her get away with last night," begins a post gathering thousands of shares on September 11. "Harris will ban all fracking... That will immediately put tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians out of work and send utility bills skyrocketing," the ad claims.

Trump supporters further picked up the narrative on social media, with one post claiming: "She didn't actually change her positions. She's just lying to get elected."

Over the past four years, the Biden-Harris administration has favored a shift toward renewable energy -- with climate legislation unlocking hundreds of billions of dollars of investment into new wind and solar programs under the "Inflation Reduction Act" or IRA (archived here).

But Harris has stayed mostly quiet about her historically progressive stance on environmental issues (archived here) since securing her place as the 2024 Democratic nominee -- a choice that some analysts see as an attempt to appeal to a moderate voter base as Election Day approaches (archived here).

AFP reviewed Harris's statements on fracking over the years.

2016

As attorney general for the state of California Harris actively sued (archived here) the Obama administration in 2016 to prevent fracking activities off California's coast.

"The US Department of Interior's inadequate environmental assessment would open the door to practices like fracking that may pose a threat to the health and well-being of California communities. We must balance our energy needs with our longstanding commitment to protecting our natural resources and public health," Harris stated (archived here) at the time.

2019

Harris said she would support banning fracking in 2019 when she ran in the Democratic primary for the presidency (archived here).

'There's no question, I am in favor of banning fracking," she said during a Democratic presidential town hall on climate change hosted by CNN on September 4, 2019.

2020

During the 2020 debate against then-vice president Mike Pence, Harris did not state her opposition to a ban on fracking.

Instead, she said: "Joe Biden will not ban fracking" (archived here) -- a statement she reiterated in front of journalists a few days before the 2020 election.

2022

Harris cast the decisive, tiebreaking vote on the IRA on August 7, 2022 in the Senate.

She has since repeatedly used Biden's administration record on energy to justify her u-turn on the matter -- including the IRA requirement to lease public lands for oil and gas drilling.

This "opened new leases for fracking," she claimed during the debate.

Oil production has hit record highs (archived here) in the Biden administration, boosted by inflation and geopolitical instability in recent years.

The infamous, massive oil drilling contract in the state of Alaska, called Willow Project, was authorized under former president Donald Trump but then also backed in 2023 by Biden despite serious backlash from environmentalists and local communities.

2024

During an interview (archived here) with CNN anchor Dana Bash on August 29, Harris said the IRA demonstrated an energy sector shift "to guard against what is a clear crisis in terms of the climate," without bans on fracking.

"What I have seen is that we can grow and we can increase a thriving clean energy economy without banning fracking," she said.

Politico also reported that a total national ban on fracking is highly unlikely to come from a US president (archived here). Any attempt by the federal government would face legal challenges, particularly regarding limits on the power of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate the industry (archived here).

Trump meanwhile has long supported fracking and boosting domestic oil production.

AFP previously debunked other claims about Harris's climate policies.