Are you kidding?
E&E News (8/13/20) reports: "Joe Biden's support for fracking and Kamala Harris' opposition to it represent one of the deepest fault lines within the Democratic presidential ticket. The gap used to be wider. In her final days as California attorney general, Harris sued the Obama administration over the Interior Department's permitting regime for hydraulic fracturing off the Pacific coast. Environmental groups had already spent years battling offshore fracking in court, and they welcomed the state's involvement as a boost. 'We must take every possible step to protect our precious coastline and ocean,' Harris said when she announced the lawsuit. But as Obama's vice president for eight years, Biden's environmental record is deeply entwined with the administration's actions — including its efforts to boost U.S. oil and gas production. The administration supported fracking as a way to displace coal emissions and curb the geopolitical influence of oil-producing nations. In Ukraine, Biden brought a "technical team" to help the country develop its shale gas reserves, according to a 2014 White House fact sheet. 'On the merits, the Obama administration was not always great on fossil fuels. There was a lot of ambivalence,' Hartl said, adding that Harris took a strong stance against fracking during her presidential campaign."
|
|
A little too late to try this good-cop, bad-cop routine.
Reuters (8/12/20) reports: "By bringing U.S. Senator Kamala Harris onto the ticket, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has signaled support for the enforcement of U.S. anti-pollution laws and for suing companies that pollute, environmental groups said. Biden emphasized Harris’ environmental credentials when he announced the senator from California as his choice for vice president on Tuesday, noting lawsuits she had launched both as San Francisco’s district attorney from 2004 to 2011 and then as the state’s attorney general until January 2017. 'As Attorney General, Kamala sued corporations like Chevron and BP for damaging the environment, and won,' said a fact sheet detailing Harris’ experience released by Biden’s campaign. The sheet also noted that Harris had sued companies for their alleged roles in exposing Californians to excessive levels of diesel exhaust."
|
|
|
|
|
|
"The belief that reducing pipeline capacity will result in a decrease in the use of crude oil is a fallacy. Producers will still produce the commodity, they will just be forced to transport through other, less safe and environmentally harmful alternatives."
– Tyler Corder,
Texas Public Policy Foundation
|
|
|
|
|
|
