Presidential Debate Options Fracking whereas Local weather Change Is Largely Ignored

Presidential Debate Options Fracking whereas Local weather Change Is Largely Ignored

By Scott Waldman & E&E Information

CLIMATEWIRE | Vice President Kamala Harris lastly talked about the local weather legislation she has pointedly prevented on the marketing campaign path — to show she will not ban fracking.

“I’ve not banned fracking as vp of the USA, and actually, I used to be the tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Discount Act, which opened new leases for fracking,” Harris mentioned at Tuesday evening’s debate with former President Donald Trump in Philadelphia.

“My place is that we’ve got to put money into various sources of vitality so we cut back our reliance on international oil,” she continued. “We now have had the most important improve in home oil manufacturing in historical past due to an strategy that acknowledges that we can’t overrely on international oil.”

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Harris was responding to Trump, who claimed that if she wins the election, “fracking in Pennsylvania will finish on day one.”

Harris supported a ban on fracking in 2019 however has since reversed her place on the drilling observe, which looms massive in gas-rich Pennsylvania. Most paths to successful the presidency embody successful the swing state.

The talk — hosted by ABC Information on the Nationwide Structure Middle — was maybe the one alternative for the American public to listen to the candidates instantly problem one another on coverage forward of the November election.

Harris dominated a lot of the talk, taunting Trump on his crowd sizes, his previous bankruptcies, his inherited wealth and his stature on the worldwide stage.

Local weather change took a backseat to points like abortion and geopolitics. However Harris labored to outline herself on the talk stage as a supporter of each fossil fuels and elevated clear vitality spending.

She touted the Biden administration’s historic funding in clear vitality — linking it to “opening up manufacturing all over the world” — and pointed to the uptick in climate-fueled excessive climate. And he or she emphasised Trump’s local weather denial.

“The previous president has mentioned local weather change is a ‘hoax,’ and what we all know is that it is vitally actual,” she mentioned.

The talk was a possibility for Harris to win over undecided voters. A New York Occasions/Siena Faculty ballot launched days in the past confirmed {that a} important share of voters, 28 p.c, really feel they should know extra about her earlier than November — in comparison with simply 9 p.c who say they should know extra about Trump.

A separate Marist Faculty ballot launched Tuesday discovered that 30 p.c of voters mentioned the “debate will assist them an excellent deal or good quantity in making their choice for president.”

Trump used the talk to deliver out the identical local weather themes that he has touched on often throughout his nearly 10 years in political life. He claimed that local weather coverage kills jobs and destroys manufacturing and that the Inflation Discount Act is basically a giveaway to China.

He additionally made dire predictions a couple of Harris administration.

“Oil will probably be lifeless, fossil gasoline will probably be lifeless,” Trump mentioned. “We’ll return to windmills, and we’ll return to photo voltaic, the place they want an entire desert to get some vitality to return out. You ever see a photo voltaic plant? By the best way, I am an enormous fan of photo voltaic, however they take 400, 500 acres of desert soil.”

Oil and gasoline manufacturing has soared to historic ranges beneath the Biden administration — a truth Harris identified. She additionally attacked Trump for his conspiratorial vitality claims and invited viewers to observe his rallies so they might see for themselves.

“He’ll discuss how windmills trigger most cancers,” she mentioned.

On the marketing campaign path, Trump has promised to each deliver again $2 gasoline and reduce inflation by dramatically increasing oil and gasoline drilling.

However oil and gasoline costs are set by a world market and largely out of the fingers of a president, and economists have mentioned that drilling for extra oil will do little to fight inflation.

Harris, in the meantime, has barely talked about the Biden administration’s local weather report, which incorporates the most important local weather spending bundle in U.S. historical past and historic investments in clear vitality which have created hundreds of latest jobs.

When she does communicate concerning the Inflation Discount Act on the marketing campaign path, she normally touches extra on its well being care provisions, reminiscent of worth caps on sure medicines.

Harris not too long ago launched a coverage platform, with a piece on vitality and local weather that doesn’t suggest any new particular concepts that differ from Biden’s strategy. However on Tuesday, she referenced the significance of local weather coverage to an important demographic: the younger voters who have been key to Biden’s 2020 victory.

“We all know that we are able to truly cope with this challenge,” she mentioned of local weather change. “The younger folks of America care deeply about this challenge.”

Reprinted from E&E Information with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2024. E&E Information gives important information for vitality and surroundings professionals.