Harris campaign says Kamala has changed, but will she bring California's climate agenda to the White House?

Vice President Kamala Harris tells the public that her views on energy issues have moderated, but policy experts and experts who spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation are not convinced that her evolution is genuine.

Harris, who got his start in politics in the progressive bastion of San Francisco, endorsed or otherwise suggested he was supportive. from the left environmental positions throughout his political career. His fledgling 2024 presidential campaign recently claimed has moderated on key policies, but Harris herself will have to show that she has truly changed her position on key energy-related issues if she is to be believed, experts and policy experts told the DCNF.

One of his most significant changes has been on the subject of fracking, an extraction of oil and gas technique. As a presidential candidate in the 2020 cycle, she endorsed banning the practice, but his campaign recently said so The Hill she no longer supports a ban. (RELATED: 'Border Czar' Kamala Harris Once Blamed 'Lack of Climate Adaptation' for Massive Immigration Increase)

'Dam will break': Trump insiders predict backlash against Kamala's basement campaignhttps://t.co/HSOgCqE094

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 9, 2024

“There's a back and forth about fracking, but he hasn't actually said he's no longer opposed to fracking, has he? He sent his campaign man to say that,” said Mike McKenna, a GOP strategist with experience in the energy sector, at the DCNF. “I think the real question is: Does he think California should have the right to determine the mix of cars in the U.S.? Is he in favor of the EV mandate? I haven't heard anyone raise that question, and I have a feeling it would be pretty hard for her to answer. I think I know what the answer would be.”

Reversing his stance on banning fracking, as well other issuesreflects a campaign strategy to characterize his thinking as having “evolved” in environmental policy and beyond, seconds in Axios.

Harris' record as California attorney general, senator and vice president also shows that she has governed to the left on climate and energy issues. Neither Harris nor the campaign has specified where he stands today on various policies he has endorsed in recent years, including carbon taxes.

As California's attorney general, Harris investigated ExxonMobil in 2016 for allegedly misleading the public about climate change and its relationship to its products. That same year, she sued the obama administration to allow offshore fracking off the coast of california and proceeded to co-sponsor the billions of dollars Green New Deal plan to transition the United States away from fossil fuel dependence as a senator in 2019.

While she was vice president, she suggested that many young Americans face “climate anxiety” about what climate change may cause in the future, and that in some cases it is so severe that young people may not want to have children because of their climate anxiety.

“Moderate. I can't breathe!” CNN on-air pundit Scott Jennings told the DCNF, suggesting he finds the notion laughable.

“Only a real interview, a press conference or a debate is going to fix this,” Jennings continued, referring broadly to Harris' policy changes on various issues. “But then again, the interview has to be something other than flattery or leg hump.”

Harris has yet to do that participate in any formal, extended interview or press conference since replacing President Joe Biden as the Democrats' de facto presidential nominee. In brief remarks to reporters, Harris he said He said his team wants to schedule an interview before the end of August.

.@ScottJenningsKY says Vice President Kamala Harris doesn't want to answer questions to hide her leftist record pic.twitter.com/GBiR6kBDqY

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 9, 2024

Harris' home state, which is politically dominated by Democrats, has also pursued some of the most aggressive climate and green energy initiatives of any state in the country.

“My impression of Kamala Harris is that she is a career politician who will do whatever it takes to get elected, and she has benefited in her career from being part of the political machine that runs California. In many aspects, the version of the California Democratic machine today is the 21st century version of Tammany Hall, or Mayor Richard Daley's organization in Chicago,” said Edward Ring, co-founder of the California Policy Center, in the DCNF. “She's not going to change. She's going to remain a part of that machine, and that machine wants to expand government.”

Ring said Harris is a product of the same “machine” that spawned the political careers of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Residential California electricity prices were higher than all other states except Hawaii in May 2024, seconds to the US Energy Information Administration, while that of the state gas prices are on average the most expensive in the continental US The state's power grid narrowly avoided off in 2022, and the policy makers are chasing a goal of having a 100% green electricity grid by 2045.

Chevron, a major oil and gas company, recently announced that it is moving its headquarters outside of California in part because of the state adversary approach to the traditional energy industry.

“California is an environmental and energy disaster. There is nothing good about California, neither environmentally nor energy-wise. They have huge environmental problems,” Steve Milloy, a senior legal partner at the Energy and Environmental Legal Institute, told DCNF in Harris' home state. “And then she chooses [as running mate Minnesota Gov.] Tim Walz, another net-zero job. He wants Minnesota off fossil fuels by 2040. It's crazy. I mean, some anonymous source says he's changed fracking, there's nothing there, okay? And if you fall for that, you deserve to have her as president, which will be a disaster for all of us.”

So is California allowed to set stricter vehicle emissions standards than the federal government, and many states have chosen to adhere to California's standards. From 2035, the sale of new vehicles with an internal combustion engine in the state will be forbidden.

For its part, the Trump campaign does not believe Harris has moderated, despite his campaign's efforts to convince the public that he has.

“Kamala Harris is as incompetent as Joe Biden and even more liberal. She was the tie-breaking vote in the Senate for Joe Biden's most disastrous policies,” Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign's national press secretary, said in a press release shared with the DCNF. “A vote for Kamala is a vote for continued inflation, open borders, high gas prices and worldwide war.”

The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Featured Image: Screenshot/CSPAN

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