Harris is strategically silent on climate, but zealots know which side she’s on

One word that should have been uttered quite a bit during last week’s Democratic National Convention — “cl🍌imate,” a top issuᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚe for much of the party’s base — was pretty much missing in action.

If you’re w🌞ondering why, there’s a one-word answer:♚ Pennsylvania.

“I think they are worried if [Kamala Harris] takes a strong position 🀅on climate, even it fits the same position that Biden took, it will make her look too progressive,” Kevin 🌼Book, managing director of Clearview Energy Partners, .

“It’s a divisiꦚve issue and they need both sides as much as possible to win Pennsylvania.”

For Democrats, talking about climate and ♔its flip-side issue, fracking, is a lose-lose proposition just now.

If Harris pushes an🌌ti-carbon policies, she might lose Pennsylvania.

If she supports fracking꧙, she risks alienating young climate voters.

But Pennsylvania is clearly the mo🐻re important prize.

Between Harris’ 2019 campaign statement that she favored a ban on fracking and the Biden-Harris administration’s ongoing war against fossil fuels, Pennsylvanians and many others are justifiably worried that a Harris presidency would pick up where Biden’s left off, working to destroy the American oil and ga🐎s industry.

Fracking is very profitable — and theref⭕ore very popular — in Pennsylvania. In 2022, the industry employed 121,000 Pennsylvanians with an average salary of $97,000, FTI Consulting.

Fraꦗcking also generated $3.2 billion in state and local tax revenue, ꦆand more than $6 billion in royalty payments to landowners that year.

Talk of banning fracking would go over like a lead balloon in Pennsylvania — and Harris has likely already unsettled Keystone State nerves by picking f𒀰ellow anti-fracker Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz over pro-fracking Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as a running mate.

A Harris spokesman has indicated that she no longer supports a fracking ban.

But since no stateme༒nt has come directly from her, it hasn’t con🌠vinced anyone.

It’s unusual 💟that climate was not mentioned in any significant way at the convention — and that climate activists aren’t gluing themselves to anything in protest.

And the normally climate-hysteric mainstream media also isn’t pressing 🗹the issue witꦐh its usual fervor. Imagine the predicament if Harris were asked to comment.

There’s an answer to that conundrum as well.

“I am not concerned,” saꦉid Jay Inslee, the Democratic governor of Washington, who made climate change the centerpiece of his 🥀own failed 2019 bid for the presidency.

Inslee last week told reporters it’s more important for Harris to distinguish herself from former President Donald Trump than to drill down on “policy nitty-gritty.”

The money quote from Inslee: “I am totally con♎fide🐽nt that when she is in a position to effect positive change, she will.”

So that’s it right there.

Democrats, without having to say a w𓆉ord, know what Harris, a Senate co-sponsor of the Green New Deal, will do on climate if she wins.

She will continue press the war against fossil fuels, including worki🤡ng to ban fracking. 

At a little-covered meeting of the Democratic National Convention’s Environmental and Climate Crisis Council, Harris climate adviser Ike Irby has pledged to take “bold action” on climate, and is “fully committed” to building on what ꩲthe Biden-Harris administration has 💮already accomplished.

The goal for Democrats, then, is just to get her elected — and𝔉 the od🔜ds of a Harris victory are better if she keeps mum on climate and fracking.

Eager for their share of the $1.2 tꩲrillion of climate spending in the Inflation Reduction Act, the climate industry is betting on Harris as well.

She $5 mill𒊎ion from climate tech venture capitalists at a fundraiser during Climate Week NYC in September. Climate advocacy groups are launching a $55 million ad campaign for Harris.

So even though she’s not talking about climate, the climate industry is talking about her. 

Will her strategy work?

Keep in mind a July 2022 poll ahead of that year’s midterm elec♔tions that only 1% of likely voters said clima꧟te was a top priority.

It’s a topic, as Democrat pollster , that appeals to “weird, very liberalꦉ white” people.

But ℱwhile weird white leftists are an important Harris constituency, there are not likely enough of them to win Pennsylvania — or the election.

Steve Milloy is a senior legal fellow with the Energy and Environmental Legal Institute and is on X at @JunkScience.