Heading into Tuesday night’s debate, Kamala Harris isn’t tipping her hand on her energy agenda.
The Democratic nominee backs global efforts to cut planet-warming pollution, touts the Biden administration’s historic clean energy investments and says she no longer supports a fracking ban. A new platform on her campaign site pledges to “unite Americans to tackle the climate crisis” and hold polluters “accountable.”
Beyond that, voters are left guessing.
Would Harris support a faster transition to 100 percent clean electricity, guaranteed jobs for U.S. citizens and more aggressive investments in public transportation — as detailed in the Green New Deal resolution she sponsored as a senator? Would she phase out drilling on public lands and slash tax breaks for oil and gas producers, as climate activists hope?
With just two months to go until the presidential election, Harris has avoided such hot button energy issues. Instead, she’s taking a minimalist approach, saying just enough to ensure voters know she represents a stark difference from Republican nominee Donald Trump, who has called climate change a “hoax” and pledged to “drill, baby, drill.”
Environmentalists are divided on whether that strategy helps her campaign — and the effort to combat climate change.
Brett Hartl, chief political strategist at the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, said the lack of detail is not problematic because of the “rather unusual last few months.”
“Eight weeks ago, my working assumption when I woke up every morning was ‘we are doomed. Biden is going to get crushed,’” Hartl said. “Because the Harris administration won’t look like a cookie cutter of the Biden administration and because it takes time to build up your team [and the] policies you want to push, it is OK that this is not the first thing out of the gate.”
But other climate activists say Harris needs to ramp up energy and climate messaging to mobilize young voters ahead of the November election. Last week, for example, Michael Greenberg of Climate Defiance pushed a top Harris staffer to make climate change “a more central issue in this campaign.”
That pressure comes as a new New York Times/Siena College poll shows trouble for Harris among young Americans. The poll gives the Democrat only a 1-point edge in a head-to-head matchup with Trump among voters aged 18-29 — a stark contrast from President Joe Biden’s 60 percent share of that voting bloc in 2020. In a matchup that features third-party candidates, 5 percent of young voters said they would choose Green Party nominee Jill Stein.
Activists say an ambitious climate agenda would pad the numbers for Harris.
“We want to be able to sell that to our base. We want to be able to push for the climate agenda that we know that we need,” said Collin Rees, campaign manager at Oil Change U.S.
Veteran federal policymakers expect a Harris administration to largely mirror the Biden administration on major energy and climate policies, such as support for renewable energy, domestic manufacturing and carbon capture technology.
“It’s going to be about fighting climate through building the middle class and the economic mandate of it,” Jonathan Levy, a former senior Department of Energy official who now is managing director at the clean technology firm Kaluza, said in an interview. “I think you’re going to see a lot of building on the progress of the last four years. And you’re going to see people that really want to do it.”
Tanya Das, a DOE veteran and senior associate director of energy innovation at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said Harris “would likely lean into environmental justice issues while pursuing all available options for clean, firm power.”
Risking an ‘unforced error’
Seven weeks after Biden abandoned his reelection bid and endorsed his vice president, the Harris campaign has unified the Democratic base, raised record funds and racked up a dizzying list of endorsements, including from all major environmental groups.
On the trail, Harris has prioritized tax hikes for corporations and top earners, abortion rights, combating price-gouging, ending housing shortages and other policies. But despite their ambitious climate track records, the former California senator and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, have barely mentioned energy policy.
Amid consistent Republican attacks over energy costs, Hartl said Harris shouldn’t risk a climate misstep that opponents could capitalize on.
“There’s no point in committing an unforced error and throwing something out there that isn’t well thought out,” he said.
But Harris is also facing pressure from the fossil fuel industry to define her energy platform.
Last week, Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, an influential lobbying group traditionally aligned with Republicans, requested a meeting with Harris to discuss a “shared commitment to addressing the persistently high rate of inflation on the American people and the energy security challenges facing the nation.”
“Now is the time to build on America’s energy advantage,” said Sommers in a letter. “Our industry stands ready to work with you and your team on a sustained vision for U.S. energy leadership.”
During a recent CNN interview, Harris said she thinks the U.S. can build a clean energy economy “without banning fracking,” a drilling technology that allows developers to access oil and gas in complex rock formations. She also said it’s “important to build consensus,” while arguing that climate change is a “clear crisis.”
Rees called some of those comments “concerning,” arguing that she should take a more aggressive approach to cutting fossil fuels.
Spokespeople for the Harris campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
Heather Reams, president of Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions — which advises Republicans on clean energy policy — said voters need to know more about Harris’ energy vision, pointing to her flip-flop on fracking and previous support for the Green New Deal.
Reams also wants to know if Harris supports the “Energy Permitting Act of 2024,” a bill sponsored by Sens. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) that aims to expedite permitting for energy infrastructure.
“Her move to the center on energy policy seems insincere,” Reams said in an interview. “More even like a ploy.”
Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), blasted the new Harris platform Monday, saying her “energy policies are making Americans poorer and more vulnerable to extreme weather.”
Trump has pledged to open up as much of the country as possible to oil and gas drilling — a move he asserts would lower inflation. But economists say presidents have little control over energy prices, while fossil fuel production is already at record levels under Biden.
Flip-flopper or climate fighter?
Scientists say temperature rise is expected to easily pass global targets absent a transition away from fossil fuels and major cuts to emissions, creating more severe weather, which in turn could spark problems including mass migration and food shortages. This year is likely to be the hottest on record.
But U.S. oil production is soaring, despite Biden’s climate change agenda, which includes pouring billions of dollars into clean energy and passing regulations to cut pollution.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts that the country could churn out an average of 13.2 million barrels a day of crude in 2024 — more oil than any country has ever produced. The U.S. also produces the most natural gas globally, while increasingly liquefying and exporting it.
Even Biden’s landmark climate law — which appears to be fueling U.S. job growth — is a mixed bag. A boosted tax credit to encourage storing CO2 through enhanced oil recovery, for example, could help fossil fuel production in some existing wells.
Some analyses, like a Princeton University study last year, suggest the Inflation Reduction Act will deliver big emissions reductions by driving down the cost of producing electricity with wind, solar and clean power like green hydrogen. But it’s still not enough to hit the administration’s goal of halving U.S. emissions by 2030 and reaching net-zero emissions by midcentury.
Climate activists are hoping Harris will take a more confrontational approach to the fossil fuel industry — in line with her record of suing oil and gas firms as California attorney general. But experts are uncertain whether that history will translate to a Harris administration aggressive on climate policy.
“When she ran in 2020, not 2024, she had a contentious relationship with Big Oil regarding climate change,” said Dan Reicher, a DOE veteran and senior research scholar at the Stanford Woods Institute for Environment. “She’s been our candidate for 35 days, and we haven’t seen anything substantive like that. So, I think that’s an open question.”
In the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, Harris called for a ban on fracking; a ban on plastic straws; and the end of the filibuster, a Senate legislative tool that ensures some members of the minority party have to sign off on most legislation. As a senator, she signed onto the Green New Deal, a nonbinding wish list of progressive policies.
Since announcing her candidacy this time around, Harris and surrogates have barnstormed Pennsylvania, a top gas-producing state and critical battleground for the vice president, while staying tight-lipped on energy. Recent polls give Harris a slight edge in the Keystone State — one well within the margin of error.
Some Harris supporters say she doesn’t need to provide much more detail on energy policy than she already has.
“I don’t think voters are looking for more information beyond the fact that she’s broadly supportive of clean energy, understands that it’s critical for energy to be affordable and reliable, and is open to a range of different technologies,” said Emily Becker, deputy director of communications for the climate and energy team at the left-leaning think tank Third Way.
Becker said polls show that although a big majority of U.S. voters want action on climate change, the issue is “pretty low” among voter priorities.
But Rees at Oil Change U.S. said campaign trail climate commitments would help ensure Harris — if elected as president — delivers real results.
“We very rarely to almost never see politicians not talk about something and then get into office and then take huge strides forward on it,” Rees said. “That’s simply not how our system works.”
