The increasing likelihood that Vice President Kamala Harris will lead the Democrats’ White House ticket this fall brings her energy policy positions into renewed focus.
During her brief stint as a 2020 presidential candidate, then-Sen. Kamala Harris was a sponsor of the Green New Deal. She opposed hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and offshore drilling.
As vice president, she moderated her views. Not only does the Biden administration not oppose fracking or offshore drilling, the United States is the leading producer of oil and gas in the world.
The Biden-Harris administration did enact one of the most significant climate and energy policies in a generation, the Inflation Reduction Act.
It contains federal tax incentives for energy investment in traditional fossil fuel communities, including those in West Virginia and Appalachia.
While nowhere as ambitious as the Green New Deal, the legislation did set the nation on a path to transition away from fossil fuels and toward renewables in an effort to slow climate change.