Environmental issues have not been a major part of Harris’s portfolio as vice president, but advocates see her as a figure who both has bona fides on the issue and is positioned to generate enthusiasm among younger and more progressive voters who were ambivalent about President Biden’s reelection bid.
“I think she deserves more credit than she often gets in this area,” said Lena Moffitt, executive director at Evergreen Action. “She’s made it a priority of the offices she’s overseen going back two decades in a way that’s really impressive.”
Harris’s tenure as California Attorney General included a 2016 investigation into allegations that ExxonMobil knowingly concealed the impacts of fossil fuels on climate change, although no case was ultimately filed.
The same year, her office reached a $14 million settlement with BP subsidies over allegations the companies had not properly secured leaky underground gas tanks at California stations, and brought criminal indictments against a Houston pipeline operator over a 2015 rupture in Santa Barbara County.
As a senator and presidential candidate, Harris staked out positions to Biden’s left on climate and energy issues. Unlike Biden, she supported a fracking ban and the ambitious suite of climate actions introduced by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) known as the Green New Deal. An official with her campaign now tells The Hill she will not ban fracking if she’s elected president.
The same positions that are inspiring enthusiasm among environmental advocates could also fuel attacks from conservatives, however.
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.
