RGF in National Review: Anti-Energy Kamala Harris Would Destroy My Blue State’s Economy

The following appeared at National Review on August 14, 2024.

With Joe Biden having dropped out of the presidential race in favor of Kamala Harris, it is critical to have a robust conversation about Kamala Harris and her public-policy views in a relatively short time, at least by the standards of American presidential campaigns. While Barack Obama is often seen as having been deeply influential in the Biden administration and having even greater influence over Kamala Harris, the reality is that it was Biden, not Obama, who turned Democrats against traditional sources of energy, including oil and gas. Obama was happy to take credit for falling CO₂ emissions on his watch thanks to the growth of hydraulic fracturing, but Biden and now Kamala Harris have abandoned such pro-energy rhetoric.

Biden threatened to “shut down the oil and gas industry” and even signed an executive order banning new oil and gas leases on federal lands. Fortunately, those pledges ran up against economic and political reality and were largely abandoned, but the Democrats have a new sheriff, and Harris seems to be even further to the political left than Biden.

In a CNN town hall in 2020, Harris stated very clearly that she would “ban fracking.” Her campaign has since attempted to walk that statement back, but it is hard to trust someone who spent four years as Joe Biden’s vice president and never expressed concern about his administration’s repeated attacks on domestic energy producers. The time before the election is limited. Remember, in many states including my home New Mexico, early voting begins three weeks or more before November 5. Harris needs to be asked and to answer some important questions on numerous policy issues.

As the head of an organization that concerns itself primarily with New Mexico’s economic well-being, I feel strongly that she needs to be fully vetted when it comes to her views on energy. After all, New Mexico is a “blue” state. It has voted for Democratic presidential candidates since 2004, when it narrowly went for Bush. New Mexico is also the nation’s second-leading producer of oil and among the nation’s leading natural-gas states. But it is also a poor state, with an economy that is heavily dependent on oil and gas (and federal spending).

For starters, Harris needs to be asked to explain her flip-flop on fracking. If she really supports fracking now, she should speak publicly about it as she did when she was opposed to it. Having an unnamed campaign official speak privately with one publication, the Hill, to signal the policy flip, is not going to be enough to placate voters in energy-producing states. More than 90 percent of New Mexico’s oil and gas are generated through the fracking process. If that is eliminated entirely, New Mexico’s economy (which everyone in the state agrees is over reliant on oil and gas) will be devastated. Even a ban on fracking “just” on federal lands (which the president could more easily mandate) would have massive impacts in New Mexico, where more than half of our oil is produced on federal lands.

Of course, New Mexico oil doesn’t just fund our own state economy and provide the revenues needed to keep it going. New Mexico oil fuels the American economy. It makes us less dependent on hostile and corrupt foreign nations. These days Venezuela is the poster child for corruption and failure, but Russia and the Saudis would all benefit from a dramatic reduction in oil production here in New Mexico. Of course, all of this would increase what Americans pay at the pump, not to mention shipping costs that would be passed along to consumers at every stage in the economy.

While there are numerous energy issues that Harris should be asked about during this abbreviated campaign (including her support for the Green New Deal), we would especially like to know her position on liquefied natural gas (LNG) and on the efforts of the Biden to slow the growth of exports of LNG. In fact, the Biden administration recently lost a lawsuit on its permitting “pause” relating to LNG export terminals.

LNG exports are one of the very best things to happen to the US economy, for American allies in Europe, and for the environment. They are a classic, “win, win, win.”

LNG exports help Germany and other European nations wean themselves off Russian natural gas, and that helps America geopolitically.

LNG exports help Asian nations, including China, to switch from coal to cleaner natural gas, which is a win for the environment.

And, of course, LNG produced right here in America (and New Mexico) helps generate jobs, tax revenue, and economic growth while reducing America’s trade deficit.

Harris never spoke about the “pause” imposed by the administration under which she served while she has been vice president, but she’s running for the top office now and it is critical for voters (especially “blue” energy-producing states including New Mexico) to know what to expect.

Ultimately, despite a lot of overblown rhetoric and massive subsidies for “alternative” sources of energy, Joe Biden was unable or unwilling to really throw a wrench into America’s energy dominance and growing energy production. We might not be so lucky after four or even eight years of a Harris administration.

It is time for Kamala to come clean.

Paul J. Gessing is the president of the Rio Grande Foundation, a think tank based in Albuquerque, N.M.