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Harris Angers Left With Defense of Fracking

Senator Kamala Harris / Getty Images
October 8, 2020

Democratic vice-presidential nominee Kamala Harris is getting blowback from her claim in Wednesday night’s vice-presidential debate that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden would not ban fracking.

"Fracking is bad, actually," New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D.) tweeted

Climate change activist Mark Ruffalo joined the Twitter cacophony, tweeting that the practice pollutes water and causes diseases. He proposed the Green New Deal—which Ocasio-Cortez brought to Congress, and Harris at one point backed—as a better alternative to fracking for job creation. And the far-left Sunrise Movement, a youth environmentalist group that supports Ocasio-Cortez and other far-left House Democrats, tweeted a meme and asked followers to support the Green New Deal.  

https://twitter.com/sunrisemvmt/status/1314032219372032007

Harris said Wednesday evening that "Joe Biden will not ban fracking."

Both Biden and Harris have flip-flopped on fracking since setting out on the campaign trail last year. The former vice president said as recently as March that there would be "no more drilling" in the United States if he were elected. And Harris said there was "no question" that she was in favor of banning fracking during a debate last year. 

While prominent Democrats on the far left believe fracking is bad for the environment, former president Barack Obama and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton both previously backed fracking as a cleaner alternative to coal. 

The U.S. fracking industry has greatly reduced the country’s dependence on Russia and OPEC nations for oil, thereby strengthening national security. It also supports the employment of 14 million American workers.