Here’s who will lead energy policy under the Harris-Waltz administration – IJR

I’m almost reluctant to do this again, since I’ve written twice before about Camila Thorndike, recently hired as “climate change director” for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign. But Thorndike proves to be a generous source of quotes that clearly illustrate the type of radical alarmists who will drive climate and energy policy under a Harris-Waltz administration.

The first strong hint of Thorndike’s proud political left can be found on her LinkedIn page, where she invited followers to join her at an online event called “Progressive Mobilization for the Planet,” hosted by radical Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington on Tuesday. and Ro Hannah from California.

literature The event reads, 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 Lee to bring us together in the final stretch.”

Wow, Hana, Jayapal and Mark Ruffaloall rolled into one. It almost gives you a Chris Matthews-like tingle in your leg, doesn’t it?

Hannah, of course, served co-chairman for Democratic Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders unsuccessful 2020 presidential race. So he and Thorndyke are probably well acquainted, given that Thorndyke worked like Sanders’ assistant on energy and environmental legislation from May 2021 to August 2022. As if that wasn’t a good enough way to burnish her progressive climate cred, Thorndike left Sanders’ office in September 2022 to work in several positions at Rewiring America, a left-leaning advocacy group that advocates for electrifying everything and eliminating oil and gas.

This past experience made Thorndike the ideal “climate change director” for the final weeks of the Harris-Waltz project.

Thorndike X channel is a treasure trove of anti-fossil fuel views. In one post from October 2021, she wrote: “This is my first week as director of political programs for Rewiring America. This team, this mission – I’m lucky!! Forward with the clean energy revolution. Down with fossil dictators and oligarchs. Let’s electrify everything.” Keep in mind, her reference to “fossil dictators and oligarchs” is aimed at executives of American oil, gas and coal companies, not Vladimir Putin, Iranian mullahs or House of Saud leaders.

Thorndike’s feed is filled with retweets of posts from a number of anti-fossil fuel luminaries, and she seems to particularly like old radical Bill McKibben. She retweeted one post from McKibben on Oct. 11 that said: reads: “Now that the richest man in the world has fully aligned himself with America’s most crooked politician, it’s clear that this election is about one thing: Can our flawed democracy withstand this wave of money and lies?”

For reference: The Washington Post reported Monday that “Harris has a huge cash advantage over Trump” and that “Harris’ campaign and associated committees raised more than $1 billion in the third quarter.” Much of this money came from billionaires and a fair number 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 her belief that “fossil fuel industry eco-terrorism is… great birth control” that causes children to “die young.” In December 2021 She said The fossil fuel industry is a “death cult” that “kills silently every day.”

Oh.

Everyone has the absolute right to hold 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 on any issue is out of line, even as it certainly puts Thorndike in the mainstream of Harris-Waltz’s current messaging. After all, the campaign’s closing argument appears to be made up of various iterations of former President “Donald Trump Hitler” nonsense.

Because the vice president Harris remains so oblivious to its actual position on energy policy that voters are left to form their own judgments about how things might go. One way to do this is to look at the character of the people who will formulate these policies.

So we must thank Thorndike for all the clarifying comments.

David Blackmon is a writer and energy consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized 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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