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Kamala Harris insists Biden administration wouldn’t ban fracking

Sen. Kamala Harris is clarifying Joe Biden’s comments during the last presidential debate about transitioning away from the oil industry

Via AP news wire
Friday 23 October 2020 18:59 BST
Election 2020 Harris
Election 2020 Harris (Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

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The Latest on the presidential campaign (all times local):

12:15 p.m.

Sen. Kamala Harris is clarifying Joe Biden’s comments during the last presidential debate about transitioning away from the oil industry. Speaking to reporters in Atlanta on Friday, Biden's running mate said he won’t ban the oil extraction technique called fracking and will “deal with the oil subsidies

Republicans have launched a barrage of attacks on the issue.

Biden was asked during Thursday's debate with President Donald Trump in Tennessee if there would be “any place for fossil fuels, including coal and fracking, in a Biden administration.” The Democrat offered a muddled response, initially saying he would transition away from oil, before clarifying he’d eliminate federal subsidies for the industry.

Biden’s climate plan calls for achieving net-zero carbon emissions in part through nixing subsidies, which would have implications for fracking. Biden also has proposed a ban on new gas and oil permits on federal lands but not a full fracking ban.

Republicans seized on Biden’s answer to again assert that his policies would have damaging implications for the oil and gas industry.

Harris dismisses those attacks, saying Trump “likes to take everything out of context.”

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