Oil and gas leaders know—Kamala Harris is not a laughing matter

The shudder you might have felt across Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana, North Dakota and other oil and gas producing states is from the oil and gas industry after Sunday’s announcement that President Biden decided not to run for re-election and instead gave a delayed endorsement of his vice president Kamala Harris.

Here’s why.  Oil and gas supporters realize she isn’t a laughing matter. They also knew when she was picked from the U.S. Senate to be Biden’s vice president running mate four years ago, she was far left of his own stands against the industry. Yes, he was critical and showed it on his first day in office when he canceled the Keystone XL pipeline project. But Harris is even more progressive when it comes to energy than Biden.

Don’t think so? When Harris was Attorney General in California, she sued oil and gas companies and even prosecuted a pipeline company because of an oil lead. She also had Exxon Mobil Corp. under investigation for allegedly misleading the public about climate change.

(PHOTO BY HUM IMAGES /Photographer: HUM Images/Univers)

“She is the kind of leader who will hold the fossil fuel industry accountable, and that’s what we need right now,” Representative Jared Huffman, a Democrat from Harris’ home state of California, said in an interview with Financial Post.

“She would absolutely carry on and build on the success of the Biden administration on climate and clean energy.”

During her 2020 campaign for President, Harris made it clear she was against fracking and also said there should be federal legal action against the fossil fuel industry.

“There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking,” stated Harris.

Harris also outlined a $10 trillion climate plan for net-zero emissions by 2045.

When asked for a comment, Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma President Brook Simmons stated:

“The Biden-Harris administration and the elites who set its priorities have deployed a whole-of-government strategy to destroy the U.S. oil and natural gas industry, its workers, our state’s economy, and the energy security of Americans from coast to coast. This top-down, anti-hydrocarbons policy is the problem, and she embraces it fully. At best, a President Harris would be a distinction from President Biden without a difference.”