Kamala Harris: ‘There’s No Question I’m in Favor of Banning Fracking’

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) promised on Wednesday to ban hydraulic fracking outright if elected president in 2020.

Harris, who cosponsored the initial Green New Deal resolution in Congress this year, made the pledge during CNN’s climate change town hall when asked by a member of the audience if she was in favor of prohibiting fracking on her first day in office.

“There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking,” Harris said. “Starting with what we can do on day one around public lands and then there has to be legislation, but yes. This is something I’ve taken on in California, I have a history of working on this issue.”

Contrary to the rhetoric, Harris was seen as “lukewarm” to fracking during her tenure as California’s attorney general from 2011 to 2017. As Breitbart News previously reported, she took a moderate position on the issue in 2016, claiming she was skeptical of fracking but would refrain from cracking down on the practice until regulations were available.

Harris maintained her skepticism of fracking, but stopped short of endorsing an all out ban on the practice, earlier this year when unveiling her proposal to tackle climate change. The proposal, which is estimated to cost more than $10 trillion over the first decade of implementation, seeks “to end fossil fuel pollution from electricity generation by 2030, halt…new fossil fuel leases on public lands” and impose “aggressive new regulations on vehicle tailpipe pollution,” according to The New York Times.

The California Democrat joins a number of her fellow 2020 competitors, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and former Vice President Joe Biden, in seeking to ban fracking.