When asked about her shift in position, Ms. Harris cited her previous support for the Green New Deal, a sweeping Democratic proposal introduced in 2019 to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
“I have always believed and worked to address the climate crisis, which is real and urgent,” she said.
The vice president pointed to the Biden administration’s work on the Inflation Reduction Act, which would invest hundreds of billions of dollars in renewable energy and electric vehicle tax credits and rebates.
Mrs. Harris has not wavered on her stance on banning fracking, a technique for recovering gas and oil from shale rock that is used by powerful industries, especially in key battleground states like Pennsylvania.
“There’s no question that I support a ban on fracking,” Ms. Harris said in 2019.
But she has since walked back that view, even casting a decisive vote on new fracking leases in the Senate.
“As president, I will not ban fracking,” she said in a CNN interview Thursday.
Campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said on social media that the Biden administration's “clean energy investments have demonstrated our ability to make progress on climate without having to stick to our old positions.”
