Harris defends U-turns and vows to ‘turn the page’ in first interview

When asked about her shifting positions, Ms Harris referred to her previous support of the Green New Deal, a wide-ranging Democratic proposal introduced in 2019 to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.

“I have always believed, and I’ve worked on it, that the climate crisis is real, that it is an urgent matter,” she said.

The vice-president pointed to the Biden administration’s work on the Inflation Reduction Act, which funnelled hundreds of billions of dollars to renewable energy and electric vehicle tax credit and rebate programmes.

Ms Harris did not explain her reversal on banning fracking – a technique for recovering gas and oil from shale rock used by an industry that is particularly strong in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

Ms Harris had said in 2019 that “there is no question I’m in favour of banning fracking”.

But she has backpedalled on that view since becoming vice-president – even casting the tie-breaking vote in the Senate on new fracking leases.

In the CNN interview on Thursday, she said: “As president, I will not ban fracking.”

Brian Fallon, a campaign spokesperson, said on social media that the Biden administration’s “clean energy investments have proven the ability to make progress on climate without those past stances”.