Now that it seems that Vice President Kamala Harris appears to be a lock for the Democrat Party’s presidential nomination, Americans should become familiar with Harris’ stance on energy policy.
Although energy policy is not as exciting and politically intriguing as some of the other issues on the table in the 2024 election, it certainly has a profound effect on the lifestyle and budget of every American.
During the Biden-Harris administration, the price of energy has increased across the board. In fact, according to a new report by The Heartland Institute, the Biden-Harris administration’s energy policies have directly cost U.S. households $2,548 since 2021.
Specifically, over the past three-and-half years, residential electricity prices have increased 23 percent, industrial electricity prices have increased 19 percent, home heating oil prices have increased 69 percent, oil prices have increased 52 percent, natural gas prices have increased 32 percent, and gasoline has increased $0.97 per gallon, or 42 percent.
In short, the sudden spike in energy prices under the Biden-Harris administration is largely due to the fact that President Biden nixed the Keystone XL Pipeline project; delayed new leases for oil and gas drilling on federal lands; implemented a slew of new regulations on fossil fuel production; embraces environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing metrics; and supports so-called renewable energy with massive subsidies.
While those policies have resulted in a steep rise in the price of energy over the past few years, they absolutely pale in comparison to what Kamala Harris would have in store should she become the next president of the United States.
Like most of her Democrat colleagues, Kamala Harris clearly believes that climate change is an “existential threat.” However, her policy agenda to combat climate change makes her far more radical than President Biden, and most other Democrats.
For starters, Kamala Harris wants to ban fracking nationwide. “There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking,” Harris declared at a CNN town hall when she was seeking the 2020 Democrat presidential nomination. Of course, banning fracking would cripple U.S. production of natural gas, sending the price of this baseload energy source through the roof. What’s more, it would decimate an entire industry, leaving thousands of Americans jobless, while simultaneously undermining our allies abroad and enriching adversarial nations like Russia.
Kamala Harris was an original co-sponsor of the Green New Deal, which would transition the U.S. economy to “100 percent renewable energy for electricity and transportation by no later than 2030 and complete decarbonization of the economy by 2050.” According to The Heritage Foundation, the Green New Deal would result in energy prices skyrocketing by 30 percent per year over the foreseeable future. Moreover, it would reduce household incomes substantially, to the tune of $7,964 per year for a family of four.
Kamala Harris firmly supports practically all federal government efforts to enact “environmental justice,” which is nothing more than a huge wealth redistribution ploy under the guise of social justice.
During her ill-fated run for the 2020 Democrat presidential nomination, Harris also endorsed a plan that included $10 trillion in new initiatives to fight climate change as well as a tax on carbon dioxide emissions.
The timing of Harris’ unflinching support for unaffordable and unreliable renewable energy coupled with her antipathy towards abundant, affordable, and reliable fossil fuels could not come at a worse time for the American people or the U.S. economy at large.
As previously stated, the American people are already struggling with higher energy prices across the board. Almost assuredly, under a Harris administration, energy prices would continue to climb.
However, at a more macro level, Harris’ energy policies could potentially doom the future of the U.S. economy. The rise of data processing centers, AI, quantum computing, and other associated developing technologies will require unprecedented amounts of dependable and affordable baseload energy. As of now, the anti-fossil fuel, pro-renewable energy agenda advocated by Kamala Harris is not compatible with the huge demand for constant energy flow that the technologies of the future will inevitably need.
Kamala Harris is all-in on intermittent wind and solar power undergirding the grid as proposed under the Green New Deal and abhors the use of oil, coal, and natural gas as baseload energy sources. Because of this fundamental flaw in logic and lack of commonsense, it is extremely apparent that Kamala Harris is totally clueless on energy policy.
Photo by Gage Skidmore. Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic.
Chris Talgo is senior editor at The Heartland Institute and a research fellow for Heartland’s Socialism Research Center.
