Here’s who would guide energy policy in a Harris-Walz administration – IJR

I almost hate to do it again, since I’ve already written twice about Camila Thorndike, the recently hired “director of climate engagement” for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign. But Thorndike turns out to be a generous purveyor of quotes that clearly illustrate the kind of alarmist radicals who would guide climate and energy policy in a Harris-Walz administration.

The first strong indication of Thorndike’s proud political leftist leanings can be found on her LinkedIn page, where she invited followers to join her in an online event called “Progressive Mobilization for the Planet,” which was hosted by Radical Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington on Tuesday. and Ro Khanna from California.

The literature for the event says, in part: “We’ll hear from leaders, including U.S. Reps. Ro Khanna and Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, about the stakes of this election for the planet — and why Vice President Harris is the only choice. We’ll also be joined by Mark Ruffalo and Sophia Li, who will bring us together for the final part.”

Wow, Khana, Jayapal and Mark Ruffaloall rolled into one. Almost gives you a Chris Matthews-like tingle on your leg, doesn’t it?

Khanna, of course, served as Co for Democratic Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders unsuccessful presidential race in 2020. So he and Thorndike are probably well-acquainted, given that Thorndike worked as Sanders’ energy and environment legislative aide from May 2021 to August 2022. As if that wasn’t a good enough way to burnish her progressive climate credentials, Thorndike left Sanders’ office in September 2022 to take more roles for Rewiring America, a left-wing state. -wing advocacy group pushing to electrify everything and phase out oil and gas.

Those past experiences made Thorndike the perfect “director of climate engagement” for the final weeks of the Harris-Walz effort.

of Thorndike X feed is a treasure trove of anti-fossil fuel views. In an October 2021 X post, she wrote: “It’s week one as director of policy programs for Rewiring America. This team, this mission — good luck! Onward with the clean energy revolution. Down with fossil dictators and oligarchs. Let’s electrify everything.” Note that her reference to “fossil dictators and oligarchs” refers to the executives of American oil, gas and coal companies, not Vladimir Putin, Iranian mullahs or the leaders of the House of Saud.

Thorndike’s feed is full of re-tweets of posts from a number of anti-fossil fuel luminaries, and he seems to be particularly fond of old radical Bill McKibben. She re-tweeted a McKibben post from October 11 read: “Now that the richest man in the world has fully engaged with America’s most dishonest politician, it’s clear that this election is only about one thing: Can our flawed democracy withstand this tide of money and lies?”

For the record, The Washington Post reported Monday that “Harris has a huge cash advantage over Trump” and “the Harris campaign and its allied committees raised more than $1 billion in the third quarter.” Much of this money has been raised from billionaires and not a few of the “fossil fuel dictators and oligarchs” Thorndike herself refers to, many of whom are actually Democrats.

Oh.

But it gets even more extreme. In May 2022, Thorndike tweeted his belief that “the fossil fuel industry’s eco-terrorism is… one big birth control” that causes children to “die young”. In December 2021, she said the fossil fuel industry is a “death cult” that “kills quietly every day”.

Oh.

Everyone has an absolute right to have strong opinions on key issues affecting our society, and energy and climate policy is no exception. But this kind of extreme demonization of the other side of any issue is over the top, even as it arguably places Thorndike right in the mainstream of current Harris-Walz messaging. After all, the campaign’s closing argument appears to be various iterations of former President “Donald trump card is Hitler” Nonsense.

Because vice president Harris has remained so steadfastly obtuse about her actual positions on energy policy, voters are left to form their own judgments about how things might play out. One way to do this is to look at the nature of the people who will formulate those policies.

So we should thank Thorndike for all the clarifying comments.

David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas industry, specializing in public policy and communications.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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