Kamala Harris has been blasted by an oil and gas expert over her flip-flop stance on fracking after she claimed to be pro-drilling during her debate against Donald Trump.
In the run-up to the debate, the Vice President said there was “no question” she would be in favour of banning the practice but when she came face-to-face with her Republican rival earlier this month, claimed she would not ban hydraulic fracturing.
Sitting down for an exclusive interview with GB News, Rey Trevino, Vice President of the privately owned oil and gas exploration and production company Pecos Country Operating, blasted Harris’s quick-shifting stance on the controversial gas extraction method as “hogwash”.
When asked whether her flip-flopping was “rhetoric to win over voters”, the host of the Crude Truth podcast agreed.
‘Hogwash!’ Oil and gas expert blasts Kamala Harris after flip-flop on fracking
GB News/REUTERS
“I do,” Trevino said, “I'm sorry, but if somebody says that they've changed their position, but they haven't changed their values, that's not the same.
“When you go back and look at the history of Kamala, her father was a socialist. They grew up that way. And that is not America. That is not commerce, that is not actual growth. That is the government taking over.
“For years prior, she has continuously said, ‘I'm going to kill fracking, we're going to kill the oil and gas industry’.”
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Kamala Harris said she would not put a ban on fracking if elected
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He added: “This lady for years has always been anti-fracking and anti-oil and just because she is now running for President she's going to sit here and say that [she's pro-fracking]?
“That's hogwash because her predecessor President Biden also said the same thing and went after oil and gas heavy on day one.
“Not to mention he kills a pipeline here in America but allows Russia to build a pipeline into Germany. So go figure that.”
The issue of fracking is a top concern in the swing state of Pennsylvania as one Siena College poll in September found some 43 per cent of voters opposed a ban on the gas extraction technique.
Following the debate, a spokesman for the Harris campaign told Fox that the Vice President has been clear on the issue and hailed her record on boosting American jobs.
The spokesman said: “Vice President Harris was proud to cast the tie-breaking vote on the largest ever investment to address the climate crisis and under the Biden-Harris administration, America is more energy secure than ever before with the highest domestic energy production on record.
“The Biden-Harris administration ignited an American manufacturing boom and created 300,000 energy jobs, while Trump lost nearly a million, and his Project 2025 would undo the enormous progress we’ve made the past four years.
“Vice President Harris is focused on a future where all Americans have clean air, clean water and affordable, reliable energy, while Trump's lies are an obvious attempt to distract from his own plans to enrich oil and gas executives at the expense of the middle class.”
Trevino explained that American oil production helps stave off high inflation rates
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Outlining the importance of American oil and gas production and its impact on the economy, Trevino said: “Oil and gas production in America is not only important for America and American security, but also for the global security of the world.
“Just a few months ago, Opec just kind of tested the waters to say, ‘hey, we're going to change production’. They didn't say if they're going to change it up. They didn't say if they're going to change it down. They just kind of tested the waters.
“And just like that, the price of oil dropped tremendously.
“America is continuing to produce more oil than we ever have almost every month, we have new record production here.
“And right now we are actually fighting the price of oil against Opec. So really we are competing with Opec head to head right now.”
He added: “Another good thing right now about the great oil and gas production here in America is that it's helping fight inflation.
“For those that recall, this Biden administration was anti-oil anti-fracking.
“He was all ‘I'm going to end it on day one. I'm going to do this.’ And next thing you know over the next year, inflation goes sky-high here in America and he got real quiet about oil and gas. Why? Because oil and gas helped bring down inflation here in America.”
