Vice President Kamala Harris claims the America has record energy production, and is energy independent - WMUR Manchester
VP Kamala Harris claims the U.S. has record energy production
Vice President Kamala Harris claims US has record energy production, and is energy independent
In the weeks after Vice President Kamala Harris was officially pushed to the top of the Democratic ticket for president, her record has been analyzed with greater scrutiny.
WMUR-TV has partnered with PolitiFact to fact-check claims made by all the major candidates.
Energy is top of mind for many Americans, and as Election Day moves closer, Harris has been touting the Biden administration's work, claiming that America has record energy production.
"Today, America has record energy production, and we are energy independent," Harris said during a July 18 speech in North Carolina.
PolitiFact rated Harris' claim as mostly true.
"Overall, U.S. energy production is at a record high. As for being energy independent, that's a little bit more complicated by some definitions. That that is correct, such as exporting more energy than we import," said Lou Jacobson of PolitiFact.
>> Download the free WMUR app to get updates on the go: Apple| Google Play<<
However, Jacobson said that in one important way, Harris' claim is incorrect.
"When it comes to crude oil, which is the source of gasoline, the U.S. still imports more than it exports. It's for a very technical reason," Jacobson said. "The refineries in the U.S. can't handle all the crude oil that we produce here because of the type of crude oil it is. And they were designed to refine foreign oil."
The U.S. and its economy, Jacobson added, is still tied to overseas developments affecting oil.
"In that sense, we're not fully independent," Jacobson said.
More factchecks of statements made by presidential candidates can be found on our "Get the Facts: Commitment 2024" page.
Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: renewables
Renewable energy sources — once the fuel of the future, then practical in specific, narrow applications — are increasingly economic mainstream sources of power generation. Hydropower was long the mainstay of U.S. renewable electricity generation, although wind power surpassed hydro for the first time in 2019, and solar continues its rapid growth. The continued growth of wind and solar, with their fluctuations, is tied in part to improvements in storage technology: batteries.