| | | | |  | | By Mike Lee | | Presented by |  | | | |  California Attorney General Kamala Harris takes questions from the media after being briefed on the Santa Barbara oil spill at Refugio State Beach, north of Goleta, California, on June 4, 2015. | Damian Dovarganes/AP | | Vice President Kamala Harris’ response to an oil-fouled beach as California attorney general could provide clues on how she would approach energy and climate policy as president. The 2015 spill outside Santa Barbara polluted miles of shoreline, killed marine animals and forced fisheries to close. Harris visited the scene 15 days after the spill and helped bring criminal charges against the pipeline company responsible for the mess. No one went to jail, but the company paid millions in damages and the civil litigation lasted until this year. As Harris assumes the mantle of expected Democratic presidential nominee, climate activists hope she’ll bring a litigator’s mindset to the White House. For one thing, they say, Harris could appoint an attorney general who would investigate whether oil companies broke the law by misleading the public about the dangers of burning fossil fuels. But as Lesley and I write today, Harris also toned down her rhetoric once she became Joe Biden’s vice president. After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, global oil prices went higher and U.S. natural gas exporters increased shipments to Europe. Positioning America as a strategic energy partner for Europe was a cornerstone of the administration’s response to Russia. More broadly, the White House has spent three years toggling between the two polar realities of Biden’s energy policy — putting cash, tax policy and regulatory muscle behind a transition to clean technology, while making an uneasy embrace of America’s role as an oil and gas superpower. Harris’ stance on where to strike this balance isn’t easy to disentangle after she has played a quiet partner to Biden. Fracking fracas
Case in point: Harris is facing questions about whether she stands by her past opposition to fracking. In one of her last moves as California’s attorney general, Harris joined a lawsuit trying to prevent the Obama administration from allowing fracking off California’s coast. That suit ultimately went to the Supreme Court, which upheld a lower-court ruling that blocked the practice. When she was running for president in 2019, Harris said that “there’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking." Harris, however, hasn’t brought up a fracking ban in nearly four years at the White House. Fracking in West Texas has helped the nation produce more crude oil than any other country in history. The U.S. is now the biggest producer and exporter of gas — after fracking transformed that industry. That poses a messaging challenge for Harris in oil-and-gas states such as Pennsylvania, an electoral battleground that is part of the prolific Marcellus Shale basin — and whose Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, is on the short list of her potential running mates. Harris needs to win over voters worried about the the state’s oil and gas jobs while promoting a Biden climate policy designed to move the country away from fossil fuels. Already, former President Donald Trump and his campaign team have seized on her five-year-old fracking comments to declare Harris “an extreme radical whose views are out of touch with voters.”
| | | | It's Friday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO's Power Switch. I'm your host, Mike Lee. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to jkirkland@eenews.net.
| | | | A message from the Center for Western Priorities: Outdoor Voters – 3 million strong in the West – want to see progress. Outdoor Voters care about conserving the public lands they cherish for future generations. They want to vote for leaders who will protect more outdoor spaces as national monuments and parks. For Outdoor Voters, a candidate’s position on conservation plays an important role in how they cast their ballots. Learn more about the issues Outdoor Voters in the West care about at outdoorvoter.org. | | | | | | Today in POLITICO Energy’s podcast: Harris is grappling with how hard to after the oil industry as she embraces much of Biden's climate policy. POLITICO’s Zack Colman breaks down Harris’ antagonistic history with fossil fuel companies and what sort of factors her campaign must weigh.
| | | | A message from the Center for Western Priorities:   | | | | | | | 
Illustration by Mr.Nelson design for POLITICO | Can Trump dismantle Biden's spending?
Trump has been antagonistic toward President Joe Biden's $1.6 trillion in climate, energy and infrastructure initiatives. Republican officials and government spending experts tell POLITICO that the former president would have multiple avenues to block, rewrite or slow-walk large parts of the Biden agenda, Kelsey Tamborrino, Timothy Cama and Jessie Blaeser report. That could quell the flow of big-ticket private-sector investments in electric vehicle, advanced battery and solar panel factories. “All of the trillions of dollars that are sitting there not yet spent, we will redirect that money for important projects like roads, bridges, dams and we will not allow it to be spent on meaningless Green New Scam ideas,” Trump said during his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. Only a small percentage of Biden's $1.1 billion in energy, climate, technology and infrastructure investments has been spent to date — less than 17 percent as of this April, according to a POLITICO analysis of federal data. As chief executive, Trump would have the power to direct federal agencies. But he would be legally obligated to carry out Biden-era programs Congress put in place (though he has insisted otherwise). There are other guardrails. For instance, GOP governors and lawmakers whose states benefit from Biden’s programs could object to repealing them. Trump would face varying legal and practical difficulties in clawing back whatever money Biden’s agencies have spent. Vineyard Wind under scrutiny
Federal judges appeared skeptical Thursday of a legal challenge by fishing industry groups against Vineyard Wind, the nation’s first large-scale offshore wind project, Niina H. Farah reports. In back-to-back oral arguments before the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Seafreeze Shoreside and the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance urged the court to reverse earlier rulings upholding permits for the project. The project off the coasts of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket in Massachusetts has been under renewed scrutiny in the past week after a portion of a turbine blade broke off, prompting a freeze on installation work. Enough is enough
Several Republican senators confirmed to POLITICO’s E&E News that the GOP conference is recalibrating its election-year approach to Congressional Review Act resolutions meant to undo recent Biden administration regulations, Kelsey Brugger writes. Republicans have introduced resolutions attacking Biden regulations of all kinds, with energy and climate rules making up about half of all introduced this Congress, according to a tally by the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards. But instead of making life harder for Biden's party, the GOP gambit is letting vulnerable Democrats cast votes distancing themselves from the White House.
| | | | Live briefings, policy trackers, and procedural, industry, and people intelligence from POLITICO Pro Analysis gives you the insights you need to focus your policy strategy this election cycle. Secure your seat. | | | | | | | | | Race against time: The Phillipines is bracing for the “worst case scenario” as it tries to contain an oil spill just a few miles off its capital, Manila.
| | | | A message from the Center for Western Priorities: There’s a powerful and growing voting bloc in the West: Outdoor Voters. What makes an outdoor voter? They live in states like Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, and Montana and are active in the West's outdoor lifestyle. They are reliable voters who pay attention to conservation issues like protecting public lands from oil and gas development, designating new national monuments, and maintaining outdoor access for recreation and enjoyment. Most importantly, a candidate’s position on conservation issues plays a decisive role in who they will vote for in this year’s elections. Candidates who want to win competitive races in the West need to earn Outdoor Voter support. Learn more about the issues that drive Outdoor Voters to the polls at outdoorvoter.org. | | | | | A showcase of some of our best subscriber content.
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The five turbines of America's first offshore wind farm, owned by the Danish company, Orsted, are seen from a tour boat off the coast of Block Island, R.I., Oct. 17, 2022. | David Goldman/AP Photo | The United Nations chief implored government leaders to protect the Earth's 8.1 billion people from withering heat waves that in recent days have caused deaths, blackouts and drought conditions around the world. The total amount of recoverable oil worldwide continues to decline and will be “insufficient” to handle demand. The rise of electric vehicles has scrambled expectations for future oil demand, according to a new analysis from Rystad Energy. The Interior Department on Friday canceled a proposed offshore wind auction in the Gulf of Mexico due to lukewarm interest from wind companies, That's it for today, folks! Thanks for reading.
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